The Most Serene Republic of Balto is a huge, safe nation, notable for its smutty television, punitive income tax rates, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate population of 595 million Yognaughts are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The large, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Social Policy. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Seaportattleland. The average income tax rate is 68.6%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but inefficient Baltoan economy, worth 28.6 trillion Jaffa Cakes 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 dominated by the Tourism industry, with significant contributions from Basket Weaving, Information Technology, and Cheese Exports. Average income is 48,053 Jaffa Cakes, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Citizens are exhausted from weekly general elections, the nation's politicians are acknowledged as the most polite in the region to the dismay of comedians everywhere, printing out government documents requires the approval of at least three admins, and the government considers it a sacred duty to video bikini-clad beach swimmers. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Balto's national animal is the Crab People, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans.

Balto is ranked 32,371^st in the world and 1,176^th in The North Pacific for Most Cultured, scoring 79 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.