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“Circumspice”

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The Pacific Alpine Commonwealth of Mount Seymour is a colossal, cultured nation, ruled by Prime Minister Nathaniel Gardiner with a fair hand, and renowned for its multi-spousal wedding ceremonies, complete lack of prisons, and ban on automobiles. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 5.868 billion Seymourians are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded, outspoken morass — juggles the competing demands of Education, Environment, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Fort-Frédéric-sur-le-Montagne. The average income tax rate is 98.4%.

The large but stagnant Seymourian economy, worth 119 trillion pounds a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is extremely specialized, is mostly made up of the Book Publishing industry, with major contributions from Tourism. Average income is 20,395 pounds, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Factories are regularly demolished to make way for low-cost housing areas, serial commas clarify the relationship between one's lackeys, the taxpayers, and kinsfolk, pretending to be prejudiced is a good way to get out of jury duty, and criminal rehabilitation takes place in re-education centers. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Mount Seymour's national animal is the Purple-Spotted Newt, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Seymourian Humanistic Naturalism.

Mount Seymour is ranked 43,138^th in the world and 184^th in Forest for Most Advanced Public Education, scoring 3,021.82 on the Edu-tellignce® Test Score.