Location: Europeia

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Shiny Happy People of Retardstan is a massive, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by The People with a fair hand, and renowned for its hatred of cheese. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 4.351 billion are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whoever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it concentrates mainly on Education, although Social Welfare and Social Equality are on the agenda. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Tresselliton. The average income tax rate is 99%. The private sector is almost wholly made up of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, although the government is looking at stamping this out.

Almost half of the child population live rough on the streets, the mining industry is making inroads into environmentally sensitive areas, the airship business has been driven out of the country by strict regulations and high fines, and politicians are to be found scavenging bins at night to supplement their income. Crime is totally unknown. Retardstan's national animal is the Norwegian blue parrot, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Brussel sprout.

Retardstan is ranked 1,309th in Europeia and 100,496th in the world for Shortest Average Lifespan, scoring -46 on the Bus Surprisal Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and