The Armed Republic of St Pents is a huge, cultured nation, notable for its compulsory military service, daily referendums, and enforced nudity. The hard-nosed population of 230 million Pentsmen are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Industry. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 73.7%.

The powerhouse St Pentsian economy, worth 19.0 trillion Pents Doubloons 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, Basket Weaving, Arms Manufacturing, and Information Technology. 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 82,472 Pents Doubloons, with the richest citizens earning 6.2 times as much as the poorest.

The restriction that you must be over 1.1 metres tall to ride a carnotaurus has recently been waived, the latest electric jet fighter has almost enough battery charge to reach cruising altitude -- provided you don't use the radar, traffic cops spend most of their work-hours calculating citizens' monthly income, and parents seeking custody have to write a five-thousand word analysis of their child's imaginary friend. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. St Pents's national animal is the Raider Shrimp, which frolics freely in the nation's sparkling oceans.

St Pents is ranked 36,308^th in the world and 612^th in The Communist Bloc for Most Advanced Public Education, scoring 5,599.84 on the Edu-tellignce® Test Score.