The Ongoing State of Absentia is a gargantuan, safe nation, ruled by youse with an even hand, and renowned for its soft-spoken computers, irreverence towards religion, and complete absence of social welfare. The hard-nosed, humorless population of 45.703 billion Absentians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The relatively small, corrupt, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of The Middle of Nowhere. The average income tax rate is 72.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Absentian economy, worth an astonishing 25,179 trillion ergs a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism, Book Publishing, and Retail. Average income is a breathtaking 550,945 ergs, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The government's new priority is citizens' access to cat videos, refugees from other nations are flocking to Absentia's border, from the highest mountain to the deepest cave - one can always count on finding a good cell signal in Absentia, and the new 'Things We Stole From Other Countries' exhibition at the National Museum of Antiquities is a hit. Crime is totally unknown. Absentia's national animal is the cambot, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Absentia is ranked 180,467^th in the world and 1^st in CDW Federation for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring 28.43 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.