Location: Hippiedom

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Lonely Hearts Club Band of Sargent Pepper is a colossal, genial nation, renowned for its hatred of cheese. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 5.179 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 Education, Social Welfare, and the Environment. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of PepperLand. The average income tax rate is 67%, and even higher for the wealthy. 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 government enforces a policy of 'from each according to their ability, to each according to the available budget', the Pepper Land Walrus is a protected species, almost all of Sargent Pepper's water is piped into the country from abroad for exorbitant prices, and volunteers are signing up to take arms against an incursion of flesh-eating zombies (Sargent Pepper has found 1 easter eggs). Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Sargent Pepper's national animal is the Pepper Land Walrus, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, its national religion is The Brotherhood of Man, and its currency is the All you need is Love.

Sargent Pepper is ranked 28th in Hippiedom and 71,231st in the world for Shortest Average Lifespan, scoring -15 on the Bus Surprisal Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and