Location: the West Pacific

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Isocratic Union of Torslan is a massive, genial nation, ruled by Bapu Martin Shaw with an even hand, and notable for its punitive income tax rates. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 3.778 billion enjoy extensive civil freedoms, particularly in social issues, while business tends to be more regulated.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Social Welfare, Education, and the Environment. The average income tax rate is 82%, 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.

CEOs can't hear the term 'Fire Sale' without bursting into tears, kids laugh off vandalism and arson as "just fun", voting is compulsory, and students cut up leftover Torslanic guilders during Arts and Crafts. Crime is totally unknown. Torslan's national animal is the Torslanic flying lemur, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Torslanic guilder.

Torslan is ranked 3,971st in the West Pacific and 93,651st in the world for Shortest Average Lifespan, scoring -25 on the Bus Surprisal Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and