Location: Lost Islands

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The People's Republic of Wheres Waldo is a massive, economically powerful nation, ruled by Leader with a fair hand, and remarkable for its museums and concert halls. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, intelligent population of 3.588 billion are effectively ruled by a group of massive corporations, who run for political office and provide their well-off citizens with world-class goods and services. Their poorer citizens, however, are mostly starving to death while being urged to go out and get real jobs. The populace has reasonably extensive civil rights, although these are mostly aimed at allowing them to buy whatever they like.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, corrupt, pro-business government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Education, Commerce, and Healthcare. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Wheres Waldo City. The average income tax rate is 95%. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Information Technology industry, followed by Book Publishing and Automobile Manufacturing.

Traffic jams are a common sight due to construction work from a massive overhaul of the nation's freeways, businesses often fire workers in favour of cheaper automatic systems, all alcohol is banned, and wealthy parents-to-be can select their perfect baby. Crime is totally unknown. Wheres Waldo's national animal is the Woof, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its currency is the Scroll.

Wheres Waldo is ranked 2nd in Lost Islands and 22,286th in the world for Most Influential, scoring 22 on the Soft Power Disbursement Rating.

NationStates by Max Barry, author of and