The United Socialist States of Phineacia is a huge, safe nation, remarkable for its state-planned economy, irreverence towards religion, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate population of 425 million Phineacians enjoy extensive civil rights and enjoy a level of social equality free from the usual accompanying government corruption.

The large, liberal, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Welfare, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of New New York City. The average income tax rate is 65.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish Phineacian economy, worth 11.0 trillion libers 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 black market in Information Technology, Beef-Based Agriculture, Pizza Delivery, and Book Publishing. 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 25,804 libers, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Every citizen is allowed exactly fifteen minutes of fame, election ballot papers are so long that unused ones are recycled as toilet roll, even secular Phineacians are shouting "Blessed are the cheesemakers!", and all government facilities are built in the subterranean citadel of New New York City. Crime is totally unknown. Phineacia's national animal is the Octopus, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Phineacia is ranked 232,404^th in the world and 745^th in The Communist Bloc for Largest Automobile Manufacturing Sector, scoring -5.83 on the Henry Ford Productivity Index.