Location: A Modern World

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The People's Republic of The Crooked Beat is a gargantuan, economically powerful nation, ruled by The Hitcher with a fair hand, and remarkable for its sprawling nuclear power plants. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 15.463 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, liberal government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Education, Social Equality, and Social Welfare. The average income tax rate is 100%. A powerhouse of a private sector is dominated by the Book Publishing industry.

The government seeks peaceful forum with terrorists, kids laugh off vandalism and arson as "just fun", the government is avowedly atheist, and all-natural foods are becoming a major fad. Crime is relatively low. The Crooked Beat's national animal is the Defenestrating Eagle, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the reggae vibration.

The Crooked Beat is ranked 33rd in A Modern World and 100,582nd in the world for Shortest Average Lifespan, scoring -47 on the Bus Surprisal Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and