The Republic of Maltandhops is a colossal, genial nation, ruled by Master Brewer with a fair hand, and renowned for its museums and concert halls, sprawling nuclear power plants, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 2.867 billion Maltandhopsians 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 medium-sized, liberal, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Industry, Education, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of The Brewery. The average income tax rate is 70.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Maltandhopsian economy, worth 494 trillion Beers a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Tourism, Beef-Based Agriculture, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 172,471 Beers, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

There's no cure or sympathy for the common cold, teenagers claim that morning paper rounds are performance art, the media seems excessively interested in what Master Brewer is wearing this season, and the government is plagued with uncertainty. Crime is totally unknown. Maltandhops's national animal is the giraffe, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Maltandhops is ranked 7,687^th in the world and 7^th in Union of Allied States for Most Developed, scoring 92.18 on the Human Development Index.