The People's Republic of New Westio is a very large, orderly nation, renowned for its compulsory military service, hatred of cheese, and devotion to social welfare. The hard-nosed, cynical population of 164 million New Westioans are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The enormous, corrupt, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Education, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 68.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but inefficient New Westioan economy, worth 6.61 trillion Westris a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a slick, highly efficient, quite specialized black market in Trout Farming, Tourism, Automobile Manufacturing, and Gambling. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 40,306 Westris, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

More sidewalk is dedicated to animals than people, mantis shrimp studies is academia's fastest-growing field, lawyers spend as much time preparing their make-up as they do their briefs, and glittering new sports stadiums adorn every city and town. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. New Westio's national animal is the Horse.

New Westio is ranked 90,142^nd in the world and 141^st in The Region That Has No Big Banks for Most Subsidized Industry, scoring 1,766.08 on the Gilded Widget Scale.