The Free Land of Phodopus is a very large, socially progressive nation, remarkable for its museums and concert halls, irreverence towards religion, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic population of 205 million Phodosians 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 Welfare. The average income tax rate is 78.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but inefficient Phodopusian economy, worth 10.5 trillion Cricets 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 dominated by the Trout Farming industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology, Beef-Based Agriculture, and Basket Weaving. Average income is 51,449 Cricets, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Science centers and state of the art laboratories are ubiquitous, elementary school children develop thousand-yard stares, voting district maps are said to resemble a tyrannosaurus eating the capital, and no one believes anything until it has been strenuously tested and peer-reviewed. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Phodopus's national animal is the Prairie Vole, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Phodopus is ranked 15,713^th in the world and 521^st in The North Pacific for Largest Welfare Programs, scoring 3,627.71 on the Safety Net Mesh Density Rating.