Factbook of the Unified City-States of Tsvarchi + Q&A

[Seculartopia]

Do Maraqueans find the parody and satire of politicians and politics innately hilarious?

[Maraque]

Do Maraqueans find the parody and satire of politicians and politics innately hilarious?

They sure do!

Politicians are the constant fodder of satire and parody on late night television. Of note include an obscure politician from a neighborhood in Rikiyan who claimed that she could see Saurisia from her house, another who claims to be a seal, and of course the most recent politician running for borough president of Estakuri who claimed that Cuerakians are all disgusting vagrants.

[Seculartopia]

What do Maraqueans generally feel about dissection? Is it seen as the use of a dead animal to benefit the wellbeing and understanding of a species, or as the violation of animal rights?

(Of course assuming that the animals were not killed for disection, but died naturally and were made for use after death for dissection and scientific study)

[Maraque]

Maraqueans generally feel that the dissection of an animal is fine if it had died naturally. There is a proper way to handle and use dead animals for the purpose of scientific research and teaching methods for medical students and those studying to become a veterinarian.

Before a class or research study is done on a body an oath of thankfulness before a Fuschakei is performed and of course proper etiquette is taken to make sure the dissection follows all proper procedures and regulations.

[Seculartopia]

Would Maraqueans fairly universally despise a candidate that ran and made an advertisement or comment bringing up some crap about an opponent's religious beliefs in their past and using it as mud to sling, the candidate citing a fundamentalist claim of "worshiping a false idol" about his opponent?

[Maraque]

Would Maraqueans fairly universally despise a candidate that ran and made an advertisement or comment bringing up some crap about an opponent's religious beliefs in their past and using it as mud, the candidate citing a fundamentalist claim of "worshiping a false idol" about his opponent?

He would be so universally despised it would be best he left the country completely as his likelihood of making any kind of living here would be nil after making such awful statements about a person's religious beliefs. That, or he could benefit from changing his identity completely and starting over as a new person (legal under most circumstances). He certainly would lose any chance at winning an election after that, especially since mudslinging and attack ads are usually looked upon negatively as immature and childish ways to compete against one another.

They might have a chance if they were running for a local neighborhood position, as each neighborhood is just as diverse as the world is large and they might hold a viewpoint similar to his that may not sway enough voters from him.

[Saurisia]

How many citizens are non-Human?

[Maraque]

How many citizens are non-Human?

A little under half a billion, or 4%.

[Seperate Vermont]

How does the banking system in Maraque work? Are funds protected and stored in a bank much similar to the Swiss system?

[Maraque]

Maraquean bank accounts are protected from snooping by Maraquean law enforcement without concrete evidence that there is shady business going on with those accounts, and even then they can only freeze the accounts.

Maraquean banks have historically been a haven for this kind of activity. Banks will let anyone open up an account with very minimal information required, and it has allowed for millions of people to hide away money for tax purposes, etc.

The government has no right to know anything about the account(s) of any individual, group, or company, and you would be hard pressed to find a judge in the land that would issue a warrant for such a thing. In the last decade, only 6 warrants were issued - six in 10 years, in a banking industry with billions of active accounts.

[Seperate Vermont]

How popular are trust funds?

[Maraque]

Grandparents usually set up monetary trust funds with a modest amount of money in trust to their grandchildren (or children, if they don't have any grandchildren) with conditions. Trust funds of many types are popular, as passing on and maintaining wealth in a family is very important to Maraqueans, especially those of the lower financial classes.

[Seperate Vermont]

Is wealth easily made through stock investments? How much, on average, of a person's total net worth is invested in some form?

[Maraque]

Is wealth easily made through stock investments? How much, on average, of a person's total net worth is invested in some form?

A person can expect a 5-6% return on their stock investments. Anywhere from 2-10% of a person's net worth is invested in some form.

[Sungai Pusat]

So, your governmental budget is 11% of the total GDP. How is that possible when your nation has taxes totalling 8% of a worker's income?

[Maraque]

Taxes go up on occasion.

[Sungai Pusat]

Taxes go up on occasion.

For what reason? Economic booms?

[Maraque]

Indeed.

[Sungai Pusat]

Indeed.

So, your nation believes the market just goes up and down and up and down, correct?

[Maraque]

It happens.

[Sungai Pusat]

It happens.

What about technology?

[Seperate Vermont]

Are people given the choice to put retirement money in private enterprise and investment?

[Maraque]

Are people given the choice to put retirement money in private enterprise and investment?

Absolutely, it's their money after all!

[Seperate Vermont]

And in a nation of ~10 billion (?) people, lack of money in government programs is hardly a concern?

[Maraque]

12.5 billion!

Well the fact of the matter is that all the Advisories do run on some pretty tight budgets, but they manage to make due with what they've got. Our economy is strong, our people are working, tourism's boomin'. Taxes from tourism spending constitutes a lot to our programs, actually.