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“haha grape”

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The Haha grape of Pledonia is a colossal, cultured nation, ruled by Gio with a fair hand, and renowned for its daily referendums, irreverence towards religion, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic population of 9.71 billion Pledonians love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The enormous government juggles the competing demands of Healthcare, Education, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of grape city. The average income tax rate is 80.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The powerhouse Pledonian economy, worth 752 trillion grapes a year, is quite specialized and dominated by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism, Cheese Exports, and Door-to-door Insurance Sales. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 77,535 grapes, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Programmers often reinvent the wheel, libraries are now installed with jacuzzis and mini-bars, college students make ends meet by selling their kidneys, and laser-wielding robots are taking aim at human hearts. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Pledonia's national animal is the grape, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Pledonia is ranked 275,137^th in the world and 4,338^th in The East Pacific for Highest Disposable Incomes, with 15,196.96 Standard Monetary Units.