abstract
| - The medium-sized, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Ataraxy. The average income tax rate is 57.9%, and even higher for the wealthy. The all-consuming Pikezian economy, worth 469 trillion Dreas a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a large, well-organized, broadly diversified black market in Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, Uranium Mining, and Automobile Manufacturing. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is an impressive 143,629 Dreas, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.9 times as much as the poorest. Senior citizens can usually be found doing heavy manual labour, the military is on a massive recruiting drive in advance of an invasion of Brasilistan, carpet bombing has decimated Brasilistan's landscape and population, and Maxtopian tourists make expensive pilgrimages to Ataraxy to enjoy their national art. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Pikez's national animal is the Flying pig, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to toxic air pollution, and its national religion is Atheism.
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