Location: Lazarus

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The People's Republic of Safj is a gargantuan, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by Safj with a fair hand, and remarkable for its punitive income tax rates. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 16.726 billion love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of the Environment, Education, and Healthcare. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of South Bend. The average income tax rate is 100%. 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.

The tenet of free speech is held dear, citizens are expected to be proficient in at least five languages, conductors wield diamond-encrusted batons to fit in with their freshly gilded surroundings, and the sound of wooden legs echo throughout Safj after the recent introduction of the Foot Tax. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Safj's national animal is the Dodo Bird, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Ivox.

Safj is ranked 3,614th in Lazarus and 101,440th in the world for Shortest Average Lifespan, scoring -93 on the Bus Surprisal Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and