The People's Republic of The Five Lakes is a very large, genial nation, remarkable for its museums and concert halls, compulsory military service, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate population of 423 million Lakers are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of New Chicago. The average income tax rate is 79.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The Five Lakesian economy, worth 27.5 trillion Stels a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector is led by the Beef-Based Agriculture industry, with major contributions from Tourism, Book Publishing, and Cheese Exports. Average income is 64,945 Stels, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Tourists visiting the nation are harangued for being capitalist pig-dogs, the canal flows through the land like a twisty turny thing, dessert dishes make up the Five Lakesian breakfast menu, and bars are packed at all hours. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. The Five Lakes's national animal is the Sparrow, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

The Five Lakes is ranked 258,047^th in the world and 3,186^th in the South Pacific for Largest Trout Fishing Sector, scoring -4.38 on the Nemo Depletion Efficiency Index.