Spotlight on:

“Erin Go Bragh”

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

The Republic of SSN85 is a mammoth, genial nation, ruled by Daniel O'Connell with an even hand, and remarkable for its free-roaming dinosaurs, state-planned economy, and ubiquitous missile silos. The compassionate, humorless, devout population of 8.008 billion SSN85ians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The relatively small, corrupt, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Dublin. The average income tax rate is 32.4%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient SSN85ian economy, worth a remarkable 2,090 trillion dollars 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 an enormous, deeply entrenched, fairly diversified black market in Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, Furniture Restoration, and Woodchip Exports. 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 amazing 261,057 dollars, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.4 times as much as the poorest.

Nobody is allowed to stop the local daycare from reading Nietzsche to pre-schoolers, many SSN85ians twitch nervously at the sight of nuns, citizens often glare angrily at jet contrails, and gun ownership is compulsory. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. SSN85's national animal is the emu, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Celtic Paganism.

SSN85 is ranked 26,598^th in the world and 271^st in Mikes Hope for Most Developed, scoring 84.28 on the Human Development Index.