The Deck of Select Cards is a massive, efficient nation, ruled by Tax Barry with an iron fist, and renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape, pith helmet sales, and triple-decker prams. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 3.037 billion Piece of Cardboards are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The enormous, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Law & Order, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Deck. The average income tax rate is 81.8%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Carded economy, worth 429 trillion pips 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 an enormous, deeply entrenched black market in Arms Manufacturing, Uranium Mining, Woodchip Exports, 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 an impressive 141,259 pips, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.8 times as much as the poorest.

Carded police have to pay out of their own pockets for bulletproof vests, the nation's war memorials are being torn down and replaced with peace gardens, it's best not to ask what goes into Deck Fried Chicken's secret blend of herbs and spices, and international trade can be a pain to deal with. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Select Cards's national animal is the Joker, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its national religion is Shoe.

Select Cards is ranked 196,455^th in the world and 23^rd in Australia for Largest Publishing Industry, scoring 199.15 on the Bella Potter Productivity e-Index.