\"Freedom is everything\"
Civil Rights: Excessive
Economic: Fragile
Political Freedom: World Benchmark
The Democratic States of Elscouta is a tiny, safe nation, remarkable for its strong anti-business politics. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 5 million are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whoever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.
It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, corrupt, liberal, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it is mainly concerned with Social Welfare, although Healthcare and Education are secondary priorities. The average income tax rate is 57%, and even higher for the wealthy. Private enterprise is illegal, but for those in the know there is a slick and highly efficient black market in Woodchip Exports.
Crime is well under control. Elscouta\'s national animal is the pinguin, which frolics freely in the nation\'s many lush forests, and its currency is the gnu.