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“Why would god be in the shape of a man?”

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The Theocracy of Blessed Machine is a mammoth, safe nation, renowned for its daily referendums, public floggings, and state-planned economy. The hard-nosed, devout population of 5.495 billion Blessed Machineans are highly moralistic and fiercely conservative, in the sense that they tend to believe most things should be outlawed. People who have good jobs and work quietly at them are lauded; others are viewed with suspicion.

The medium-sized government prioritizes Spirituality, with Administration, Education, and Industry also on the agenda. The average income tax rate is 31.3%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The strong Blessed Machinean economy, worth 374 trillion not applicables 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 black market in Information Technology, Trout Farming, Cheese Exports, and Gambling. 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 68,164 not applicables, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Teachers are skilled at leaving no evidence of child cruelty, minority children spend hours bussing to schools miles away from home, the amount welfare recipients spend on fertilizer has exploded, and the saying 'break a leg' is now taken literally. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, despite the fact that it is difficult to make it through a day without breaking one of the country's many laws. Blessed Machine's national animal is the not applicable, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Blessed Machine is ranked 60,276^th in the world and 6^th in Astoria for Highest Poor Incomes, with 48,306.87 Standard Monetary Units.