The Republic of Penceres is a colossal, environmentally stunning nation, renowned for its pith helmet sales, daily referendums, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 5.292 billion Penceresians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass — juggles the competing demands of Healthcare, Education, and Administration. The average income tax rate is 81.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Penceresian economy, worth 292 trillion pounds a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Tourism industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology and Door-to-door Insurance Sales. Average income is 55,178 pounds, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

It turns out that you actually can put a price on intangible cultural heritage, political visitors are forced to stop ten paces from Leader's throne, fire stations and hospitals can't deploy emergency vehicles because badly parked cars block them in, and giggling elementary school newspaper reporters want to know why Leader is a silly poophead. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Penceres's national animal is the Centaur, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Penceres is ranked 8,936^th in the world and 427^th in The North Pacific for Most Cheerful Citizens, with 56.1 Percentage Of Water Glasses Perceived Half-Full.