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“The government should be of the people, by the people”

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The People's Republic of Appall is a gargantuan, efficient nation, remarkable for its avant-garde cinema, pith helmet sales, and irreverence towards religion. The cynical population of 10.099 billion Appallians are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, corrupt, socially-minded, well-organized morass — juggles the competing demands of Healthcare, Education, and Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of special. The average income tax rate is 91.8%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The all-consuming Appallian economy, worth 872 trillion dollars a year, is driven almost entirely by government activity. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Book Publishing industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology and Tourism. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 86,386 dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

It is illegal to distribute Girl Guide Cookies without an advanced food hygiene diploma, nature magazines featuring stick insects on their covers are sometimes mistaken for fashion magazines, hell is not always other people, and the entire entry for Appall in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the World reads 'mostly harmless'. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Appall's national animal is the wolf, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Appall is ranked 287,445^th in the world and 3,242^nd in the Pacific for Most Patriotic, with 1.35 flags saluted per person per day.