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“Fortitudo Amat Sapientes”

Overview • Policies • People • Government • Economy • Rank • Trend • Cards

The Full Deck of 52 is a mammoth, efficient nation, notable for its ritual sacrifices, keen interest in outer space, and suspicion of poets. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 9 billion 52ians are prohibited from doing almost everything except voting, which they do timidly and conservatively.

The large, corrupt, moralistic, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Administration. The average income tax rate is 69.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient 52ian economy, worth 949 trillion golds 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 slick, highly efficient, quite specialized black market in Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, Woodchip Exports, 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 105,549 golds, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

A niche industry catering to S&M enthusiasts has sprung up, the saying 'break a leg' is now taken literally, brave curators do battle with disorganised government libraries, and racial supremacists indulge their wildest fantasies in cinemas and theatres across the nation. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. 52's national animal is the Elephant, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

52 is ranked 279,446^th in the world and 196^th in The Region That Has No Big Banks for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring -8.31 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.