Location: The East Pacific

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Kingdom of West Heights is a massive, socially progressive nation, ruled by Eric James Wallace with a fair hand, and remarkable for its restrictive gun laws. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 2.248 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, the Environment, and Social Equality. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of West Heights City. The average income tax rate is 99%. 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 Anti-Government Hour' is a popular programme on many of West Heights's radio stations, welfare funding has recently gone through the roof, zombie-like crowds of hard drug users stumble through the streets, and military funding has been stripped back. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. West Heights's national animal is the Bald Eagle, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, its national religion is Catholicism, and its currency is the Dollar.

West Heights is ranked 4,237th in The East Pacific and 100,505th in the world for Shortest Average Lifespan, scoring -46 on the Bus Surprisal Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and