The Bird Is The Word of Hydroponic Nation is a gargantuan, cultured nation, ruled by Hydroponicus with a fair hand, and remarkable for its rampant corporate plagiarism, frequent executions, and hatred of cheese. The hard-nosed, democratic population of 42.99 billion Hydroponicans 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 government juggles the competing demands of Education, Environment, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Greenleaf. The average income tax rate is 71.6%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Hydroponic Nationian economy, worth a remarkable 6,780 trillion Funyons a year, is highly specialized and mostly comprised of black market activity, especially in Book Publishing, Gambling, and Tourism. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 157,721 Funyons, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Women have a strange proclivity for dressing up as caped weasels, the nation's generous tax credits have brought all the film studios to the yard, both diets and economic output are growing leaner with recent restrictions to free trade, and the internal market is thriving. Crime, especially youth-related, is all-pervasive, probably because of the absence of a police force. Hydroponic Nation's national animal is the Wombat, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Hydroponic Nation is ranked 420^th in the world and 3^rd in Wysteria for Most Valuable International Artwork, with zero Bank.