The Republic of Vinland Independent State is a huge, genial nation, ruled by James T Barnacle with an iron fist, and renowned for its museums and concert halls, free-roaming dinosaurs, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, cynical population of 873 million Vinlandics are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The enormous, corrupt, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Administration, and Law & Order. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Steelesburg. The average income tax rate is 73.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Vinland Independent Statean economy, worth 68.3 trillion Kronor a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a large, well-organized, highly specialized black market in Arms Manufacturing, Book Publishing, Information Technology, and Basket Weaving. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 78,242 Kronor, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Dozens of additional foreign policy specialists have been sent to the country's WA Mission, public incontinence is a growing problem amongst the nation's women, cotton candy made from genuine cotton cellulose doesn't quite satisfy, and ritual mummification is making a comeback. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Vinland Independent State's national animal is the Whale, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans.

Vinland Independent State is ranked 244,493^rd in the world and 70^th in Kerbals of the North for Most Cheerful Citizens, with 46.62 Percentage Of Water Glasses Perceived Half-Full.