The United States of Ericah is a large, safe nation, renowned for its ubiquitous missile silos, compulsory military service, and smutty television. The hard-nosed, hard-working, democratic population of 170 million Ericahians are effectively ruled by a group of massive corporations, who run for political office and provide their well-off citizens with world-class goods and services. Their poorer citizens, however, are mostly starving to death while being urged to go out and get real jobs. The populace has reasonably extensive civil rights, although these are mostly aimed at allowing them to buy whatever they like.

The relatively small government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Education. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 15.2%.

The all-consuming Ericahian economy, worth 16.0 trillion dollars a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Retail industry, with major contributions from Book Publishing, Door-to-door Insurance Sales, and Furniture Restoration. Average income is 94,176 dollars, but there is a large disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 371,340 per year while the poor average 16,190, a ratio of 22.9 to 1.

It turns out that money can buy you happiness, the musical cognoscenti insist the national anthem just isn't the same without a double contrabass flute, contestants on Ericah's Got Talent are screened by the government to make sure that they actually have talent, and Ericah Barrier Island residents anxiously await their 'Bridge to Somewhere'. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Ericah's national animal is the bald eagle, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to toxic air pollution.

Ericah is ranked 199,355^th in the world and 743^rd in Concord for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring zero on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.