The Republic of Mephita is a huge, safe nation, notable for its keen interest in outer space, soft-spoken computers, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 348 million Mephitans are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The large, liberal, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Muskingham. The average income tax rate is 69.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Mephitan economy, worth 26.0 trillion credits a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is led by the Trout Farming industry, with major contributions from Tourism, Information Technology, and Beef-Based Agriculture. Average income is 74,581 credits, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Nothing gets the party jumping like Leader specifying how high, glamping Mephitans won't sleep in a tent that doesn't include a Jacuzzi, the nation faces constant invasions by foreign boy bands, and only AIs know why the nation is rapidly increasing its semiconductor stockpile. Crime is totally unknown. Mephita's national animal is the sturgeon, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Mephita is ranked 57,702^nd in the world and 815^th in the Pacific for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 130.58 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.