The United States of Shinyland is a huge, efficient nation, renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape and complete absence of social welfare. The hard-nosed, hard-working, democratic population of 571 million Shinylandians are effectively ruled by a group of massive corporations, who run for political office and provide their well-off citizens with world-class goods and services. Their poorer citizens, however, are mostly starving to death while being urged to go out and get real jobs. The populace has reasonably extensive civil rights, although these are mostly aimed at allowing them to buy whatever they like.

The tiny government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Education, and Spirituality. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 7.9%.

The very strong Shinylandian economy, worth 36.8 trillion dollars a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Door-to-door Insurance Sales, Basket Weaving, and Book Publishing. Average income is 64,432 dollars, with the richest citizens earning 9.3 times as much as the poorest.

Victims of crime are viewed as less trustworthy than politicians, government popup ads are springing up like weeds, environmental protestors are being rounded up and taken away in sinister black vans as a massive land development campaign gets underway, and much of Shinyland's computer network is controlled by a rampant artificial intelligence. Crime is moderate, with the police force struggling against a lack of funding and a high mortality rate. Shinyland's national animal is the Bear, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Shinyland is ranked 224,984^th in the world and 11^th in Gates Law 2022 for Highest Foreign Aid Spending, scoring -5.48 on the Clooney Contribution Index.