Location: The Bad Place

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Swingin Hotspot of New South Hell is a colossal, economically powerful nation, ruled by the Lord of Eternal Darkness with an iron fist, and notable for its anti-smoking policies. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 9.268 billion are ruled with an iron fist by the corrupt, dictatorship government, which oppresses anyone who isn't on the board of a Fortune 500 company. Large corporations tend to be above the law, and use their financial clout to gain ever-increasing government benefits at the expense of the poor and unemployed.

There is no government in the normal sense of the word; however, a small group of community-minded, corrupt, moralistic individuals concentrates mainly on Defence, although Law & Order and Religion & Spirituality are secondary priorities. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Trespassers Will Be Shredded. Income tax is unheard of. Private enterprise is illegal, but for those in the know there is a slick and highly efficient black market in Arms Manufacturing.

Harry Potter books are banned, the elderly live on a steady diet of canned beans in dreary government housing, shanty towns are forming in the suburbs of major cities, and political activists are routinely executed. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force. New South Hell's national animal is the spiny leech, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, its national religion is Nihilistic Pandaemonium, and its currency is the agony.

New South Hell is ranked 1st in The Bad Place and 305th in the world for Shortest Average Lifespan, scoring 63 on the Bus Surprisal Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and