Im putting this here because this is a small sample, but still.

What is the most important thing to a country?
No tricks, no no right answers, no bait and switch. I just want to know what people think is important thing to a modern country(besides drinking water)?
Here is somthing to help you think: think about what makes people go crazy, think past what your heart may come up as an obvious answer, think about what seperates a harmonous country to a conflicted one.

Id love to hear because im just wondering how people will answer(ill give mine later).

Most important is stability, and a strong and fair leader can be crucial to that. Changes on a whim can make the citizenry crazy with worry and insecurity.

Strong leadership.

Stability

That "simple question" as you put it is too general so instead of writting a whole freaking essay about my thoughts on it I'll ask you a question, What types of things are you talking about? Actual things, possessions etc? Morals? Tradition? Culture? Worldview? Economy?
Here I'll give you an example:
Since I'm Canadian I'll do my own country.
Items/Stuff: We greatly value the oil supplied by western Canada and the fish for the east
Morals: We say sorry when needed and do what feels right.
Tradition: Everybody her celebrates Christmas, even non-Christians, we've all found a way to incorporate it into our own religions, athiests call it National Gift Day.
Culture: Well this is a bit wired to say but true nonetheless, Basically Britain and France had us as their baby. France won't pay child support.
Worldview: We love to hear other nations call us nice and kind people but when they make fun of us for the general stereotypical inuet people of the north we get pissed, yes we have electricity and running water, no we don't all live in igloos and no we don't have winter all year long. (True rumor about us we do use the word eh I almost every sentence we say, just usually not when we are typing)
Economy: Yeah we don't have the greatest economy but we look south of the border and think "It can always be worse, Eh?"

1003020

I love Canada. You guys are awesome, even if you put gravy on your french fries.

Community.
People within the same country have to be able to live with each other even if they hate each other's guts.
If they can't learn to keep themselves together and support each other, then whoever's left will quickly fall apart.

1003020 yeah, South America's economy is terrible, no wonder half of detroit's baseball team is from Venesuela. Other than that, the only thing i have against Canada is the obvious(bieber) and the fact that their bacon is a LIE!

1002917

Think about it at the most basic level. A country is made up of people. What is more important, the propagation of a national identity (the country), or the rights of the people who make up the country?

If we go with the latter, we understand that the rights of a people are best protected by a free and ordered society. This is ensured when enough people understand and follow a set of principles that encourage life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. From that comes the civil society, and the national identity follows from that civil society.

The most important thing for a country should be to propagate those values and principles, ensuring that the ideals that improve liberty and encourage the pursuit of happiness are instilled in its children and immigrants. This ensures the continued existence of the national identity, while allowing the individual to develop his or her own life in liberty. If these values are not instilled, then the national identity may continue on, but it will only be a name. Without the principles and educated populace that made that country possible, it will lose its way and die.

In simple terms, say you have a business that makes great pens. The owner passes it on to her daughter, teaching her how to make good pens and treat the customer right. The daughter passes it on to her daughter, but neglects some of that teaching. A few generations down the line, there are two possibilities. One is that the later daughters regained some of that lost knowledge and continued to make great pens, and the other is that the pen company no longer makes great pens, but poor pens under a name known for greatness.

A very basic concept is survival. If a country treats its own survival as its most important goal, then it must seek to instill the values that made it great in its populace. Military strength, scientific advancement, and business success all grow out from the tree of liberty. If a country is oppressed by a foreign power, a strong national identity forged by these principles will give it a fighting chance to rise again. Far worse than oppression by a foreign power is the self-inflicted suicide of a population that forgot how their ancestors became great.

Well, that's my two cents. Probably full of holes! The TL;DR version is: Survival, when defined as the continuation of the national identity by a worthy populace.

A benevolent central authority with the strength to defend it's rule against all hostile forces.

I'd say honesty. Even if the country isn't stable due to some issue like a recession or natural disaster, an honest leadership really goes a long way to keep the people content.

The easiest things to have to make a strong country is a Strong Leader and for the Leader to be followed by his people without question.
Think North Korea or... My Little Pony (Funny how one can make that connection)

The same has happened with America over certain times, Economy isn't completely necessary as strange as that seems since.

The worst thing for a country is discontent, change when made by the people without the direction of it's leadership is quite often slow and painful.

Not saying that North Korea is the example of great place but even with all the obvious things in that country North Koreans go out and still go back in. North Korea if its leadership was kind would be an effective place to live.

1003099
1003130
Whats wrong with gravy on fries? It tastes great. But I do prefer American beacon over our own.

1004661
I see no problem with gravy on fries, cheese curds on the other hand...

1002917
A simple question with complex answers.

Strong yet flexible
Stable yet changing
And if I dare say it... Conservative yet liberal

The simplest answer is that a government is Harmonious

Strong military.

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SO, of course thee is no one true answer to this question, for to have a country to operate somoothly, you need more than one thing, but still, if i had to chose one thing, It'd be the economy.

Now, to fully understand my answer, we'd have to make a few assumptions, to have a strong economy for more than a few periods or years, we would need stability and security, otherwise the economy would not be strong and investment would not happen. But other than that, when a country meets full employment (yes, employment is a part of macroeconomics, and "full employment" means that they have reached a very low unemployment level) people and people have a means to fulfil thier needs (not meaning said means are fulfilled FOR them) they are generally going to be happy.

I've written many papers on what had happened during the American Great Depression, and I'll say that if people are happy, the leader that they follow does not matter as much as it should. Even if they follow a bad leader, as long as the people are satisfied somehow, they will not complain. But on the contrary, if they are not happy, the people will bitch and moan about how their leader is not doing their job well enough unless the people have bought into that leader's lies I mean policies, but most of the time, people are not going to care enough to actually do somthing about it. (im talking about the comparrison between FDR and Hoover, but that is a rant for another time, poke at your own risk).

Also, with a few things that have been said by a few other people, the environements and conditions you have described often are needed to have a strong and stable economy, or are the effects of it.

So, yes, my answer is the economy.
(suprisingly, not nearly as many people have said that you need a strong military to have a prosperous country than I had estimated)
I just asked this because ive been kicking around an idea for a fic about how Twilight's dad is an economics teacher who inadvertantly piques the Princess' interest and begins to save the Equestrian economy durring a steep recession.
the story is not simply going to be me writing directly out of my textbook from Macro, but using lessons and examples, parodying the American Economy now and in the 30's and making it into Equestria.
The story addresses many different theories and roadblocks to prosperity (Kind of like how the Wizzard of Ozz was actually a political satire.).
the three main factors in the stoy that he must ovcercome are:
Celestia who represents a socialist/ marxist economic strategy, wanting to take care of everyone.
Luna, who represents an outdated Keynesian view, (obamanomics, "spend your way out of the bust")
and the Nobles, who represent corruption, (Pork Barrel Spending, Rent Seeking, Coercive Monopoly, ETC).

An example of what a lesson would be like:

Celestia takes Twi's dad (lets call him Allan) to a gigantic Dam project somewhere.

They arrive, and the dam is massive, about everyone in the nearest three towns is working on it, but Allan begins to look around, and notices a few things, like the fact that there is almost no construction machinere, that ponies are using shovels to dig the dam by hand. He points it out to her, and she smiles, answering by saying, "Look at all the jobs that have been made."
Allan Face palms himself and just asks "really?" he then tries to explain that money could have been invested elsewhere in more effective means but she doesent understand, she keeps focusing on "allthe jobs she made".

Finally, he cant take it anymore, so Allan goes to the lunch tent, grabs a box of 100 metal spoons, passes them out to the workers, and takes their shoves back to the Princess. She stares at him, and asks what the hell is going on, to which he responds, "I just made more jobs, go and find more ponies to work!"
they debate over it for a while, and the Princess finally understands what he means, that throwing more manpower at somthing is just a mirage for making more jobs, giving more ponies less money, and returning the workers back to unemployment after the project is over.

Also, famous economists from the past make cameos and appearances in the story as jokes.
Margret Thacher as a griffin named Margret Hatcher
Keynes as Luna's economic advisor
The French Economist Says as a Prench Econocmist
and more.

So.. would anyone actually read that, a FIM fiction fic about monetary and fiscal policy?

Heres a rap song about Macro Econ is you want.