Location: The East Pacific

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Grand Duchy of Retired Greyhounds is a massive, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Samy Speckled-spot with an iron fist, and renowned for its parental licensing program. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 1.046 billion are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, corrupt government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Defence, Education, and Law & Order. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Anything Soft. The average income tax rate is 74%, and even higher for the wealthy. A powerhouse of a private sector is dominated by the Information Technology industry.

Teenage fathers are forced to join the army, political activists are routinely executed, citizens applying for their first jobs face fierce competition from the homeless, and children have taken to using semaphore in light of the recent mobile phone ban. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Retired Greyhounds's national animal is the Greyhound, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Kibble.

Retired Greyhounds is ranked 3,905th in The East Pacific and 90,133rd in the world for Shortest Average Lifespan, scoring -22 on the Bus Surprisal Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and