The Democratic States of The Merinos is a massive, genial nation, ruled by President Amadeus Mars with a fair hand, and notable for its multi-spousal wedding ceremonies, sprawling nuclear power plants, and irreverence towards religion. The compassionate, democratic population of 3.775 billion Merinons are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The enormous, liberal, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Lacus Caeruleus. The average income tax rate is 79.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Merinosian economy, worth 374 trillion Merinos notes a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing, Tourism, and Beef-Based Agriculture. Average income is 99,208 Merinos notes, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Funeral directors are frequently looking at their watches during funerals, people who stay late at the office often come home to find their own funeral being planned, those who cut young children are told to cut it out, and the nationalised Arms Manufacturing Industry is not interested in making weapons. Crime is totally unknown. The Merinos's national animal is the Entity, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

The Merinos is ranked 53,498^th in the world and 129^th in Refugia for Most Subsidized Industry, scoring 3,680.13 on the Gilded Widget Scale.