The Principality of Ersatz is a gargantuan, genial nation, notable for its ban on automobiles, public floggings, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate population of 24.871 billion Ersatzians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass — juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Spirituality, and Environment. The average income tax rate is 79.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The large but underdeveloped Ersatzian economy, worth 515 trillion Fakems a year, is highly specialized and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Soda Sales, Tourism, and Trout Farming. Black market activity is frequent. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 20,710 Fakems, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

College students make ends meet by selling their kidneys, all major public areas are watched by police surveillance cameras, the government is reining in public spending, and the Faux is a protected species. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Ersatz's national animal is the Faux, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Ersatz is ranked 120,593^rd in the world and 593^rd in 10000 Islands for Most Subsidized Industry, scoring 962.09 on the Gilded Widget Scale.