Location: The North Pacific

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The United Socialist States of Span is a gargantuan, environmentally stunning nation, ruled by M Shobacus Maz with a fair hand, and renowned for its devotion to social welfare. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 20.117 billion hold their civil and political rights very dear, although the wealthy and those in business tend to be viewed with suspicion.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent government stops and the rest of society begins, but it concentrates mainly on Education, although Law & Order and the Environment are on the agenda. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Maz. The average income tax rate is 100%. A powerhouse of a private sector is dominated by the Book Publishing industry.

Scientists regularly clone human beings for research purposes, police spend their Saturday nights breaking up illegal street races, there has been a series of riots between local cannibals and health food advocates, and citizens select which government department gets their income tax spannys each year. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Span's national animal is the donkey, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the spanny.

Span is ranked 4,553rd in The North Pacific and 100,917th in the world for Largest Trout Fishing Sector, scoring -10 on the Nemo Depletion Efficiency Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and