An archy
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| Flag of An archy | |
| Motto: If I must, I will sacrifice my peace for my freedom. | |
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| Region | Region 1 |
|---|---|
| Capital | An Archia |
| Official Language(s) | English, Latin |
| Leader | Andy Anderson |
| Population | 1,390,000,000 |
| Currency | monetary unit |
| NS Sunset XML | |
The Citizens' Club of An archy is a large economically powerful nation in an isolated
corner of the world called Region 1. It is notable for its optional citizenship and complete lack of business regulations. Historically, An archy has experienced a great deal of
turmoil, but recently the country has become much more stable due to the leadership of its late
leader Andy Anderson. Many political experts expect that, in the coming years, many challenges
to this stability will result from Anderson's recent assassination.
Geography
An archy is located in an isolated region of the world, twenty miles south of the Antarctic circle slightly east of the international date line. With a total land area of only 250,000 sq. km it is a extremely small island gived its massive population of 1.4 billion. To an outsider, the island may seem vastly overcrowded, but most An archists view this population density as normal. Since the country is located so far south, deep snows occur regularly. Because of this, the people of the island have developed an interesting feature within their infrastructure. Every building has additional doors located from the second through the tenth stories up. When the deep winter snows comes, the people can then navigate through what they call the "Winter City." Major geographical features of the island include the Anderson Mountains in the center of the western half of the island and An archic Bay, in the center of the north shore. The capital city, An Archia, is located on the west side of this bay. Other major cities include, Andersonville in the east and Plantopia in the south west. For the most part, the rest of the island is filled with the densly populated suburbs of these three cities. The far northwest, however, is controled by an independant country called the Federation of Noncitizens.
Government
To understand the governmental organization of An archy, one must understand the concept of the "citizens' club." A citizens' club is a group of citizens who voluntarily collectivize to form a political organization similar to a goverment. The difference between a citizens' club and a traditional government is that participation in a citizens' club (through the payment of taxes or any other means) is completely optional. This fact gives individuals born in An archy the ability to participate in any citizens' club they choose. Although membership and participation in any citizens' club is optional one particular citizens' club, the Citizens' Club of An archy, completely dominates the rest. Founded by Andy Anderson in the year 0, the Citizens' Club of An archy has structure similar to conventional governments. The owner of the Citizens' Club, formerly Andy Anderson and now his son, Andy Anderson, makes all budget decisions for the Citizens' Club. There is a Board of Directors, analagous to a parliament or other legislative body, which passes amendments to the Citizens' Code of Conduct as well as an Ethics Commitee, which interprets the code of conduct much like a judicial branch interprets the laws passed by a parliament. The Citizens' Code of Conduct is essentially the law for anyone who agrees to be a citizen. It forbids a few actions that are deemed harmful to other citizens, such as murder and rape. Aside from that short list of forbidden actions, a citizen may do as he/she wishes. The Citizens' Code of Conduct also includes a section titled "The Reserved Rights of the Citizens." The Reserved Rights of the Citizens lists actions against which the Board of Directors may not pass amendments to the Citizens' Code of Conduct. It stipulates, among other things, that Citizens may worship and speak as they please and that the governing body of the Citizens' Club may not interfere in religious matters. There are also several smaller citizens clubs whose members total less than twenty million.
History
The history of the island of An archy began over two thousand years ago when a Roman exploration ship, known as "Stella Orientis," was blown severely off course while going to the far east. All An archists are decended from the crew of this ship. Since that time the island has experienced a great deal of political turmoil. The first coup detat in the islands history occured when Vladius Conquistius led a mutiny against the captain of the "Stella Orientis," Octavius Miriamus, within a few hours of their arrival to the island. More recently, the political atmosphere has been fairly calm for the last thirty years, because of the establishment of the Citizens' Club of An archy by Andy Anderson. The story of how Anderson came to power is truly unique in the history of business. In what is now refered to as the year negative 3, a thirteen year old Anderson started a retail business that supplied goods at prices very near the wholesale price. The lead retail company, WalStore, preditorily lowered their prices to half of Anderson's, even though they could not turn a profit on those prices. Anderson then organized a clandestine effort to buy their goods at a record pace. Since each sale constituted a loss for WalStore, the retail Goliath soon found itself in deep debt, declairing bankruptcy on Anderson's sixteenth birthday. Since that time Anderson extablished the first citizens' club to have over 90% of the population as members. This has led to a time of peace and prosperity on the island. Now, however, Anderson has been assassinated in an actioned Sanctioned by the former owner of WalStore, and leader of the Federation of Noncitizens, Robert Blacksmith. This could lead to the downfall of peace on the island, unless the new leader of the Citizens' Club, Anderson's son, Andy Anderson, can lead a successful campaign against the noncitizen militant groups.
Grammar
The term for an individual from An archy is "An archist."
The adjective form of An archy (which would describe a thing from or related to An archy) is An archic, unless the adjective is used to describe a person, in which case it would be An archist.
The "a" in "archy" is never capitalized in any word derived from "An archy," with the exception of the capital city, An Archia.
An interesting fact on names in An archy is that nearly every citizen has a name of the form Name Nameson, for example Robert Robertson. This is because every person recieves his/her last name from the first name of his/her father so that a man with a father named John would have the last name Johnson. Recently, An archists have been in the habit of giving every child the same first name as his/her father (with the daughters recieving feminine versions of the name.) These two factors have led directly to the "Name Nameson" phenomenon.
Economy
The Citizens' Club of An archy has a powerful economy led by the autimotive industry and retail. The most powerful business in the country is Andicorp, which was started by Andy Anderson as a retail chain and is now dominent in all sectors of the market, with an overall share of 50.5% of the entire industry in the country. The government focuses most of its fiscal attention on commercial infrastructure and so that sector has showed continued improvement in the past few decades. Currently, the GDP per Capita is near $30,000 and the unemployment is under 2.9%. Although there is no tax, most people must pay a fee to have a membership in the Citizens' Club. Low income earners are partially or fully excluded from this fee so long as they agree to keep the Citizens' Code of Conduct.
People
The people of An archy, the An archists, are known to be highly intelligent, stubborn, and hard working. Most of them are not religious, although Roman Catholics are a small minority. Racially, the vast majority of An archists are Roman, however there is little or no prejudice against racial minorities. Most people in the Citizens' Club have a high standard of living with a reasonable level health care and education. Many of them enjoy attending baseball games and the theatrical performances in An Archia. Soccer at Anderson Park is also a favorite pasttime. Most workers are employed in retail with the automotive sector coming a close second and the self employed making up the third largest percentage of the workforce. The age distrobution is suprisingly pyramidal for a developed country as population growth has remained fairly consistent.
In Summation
The Citizens' Club of An archy is a highly populated nation located south of the Antarchic Circle. Participation in the government is optional (although most individual choose to do so.) and the long history of the island has been mostly turbulent (although recently it has been more stable. The country is very powerful economically, led by the automotive and retail sectors, and its hard working people enjoy a high standard of living.
