The Commonwealth of Latstat is a huge, safe nation, renowned for its compulsory military service, absence of drug laws, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic population of 710 million Latstatians 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, socially-minded, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Welfare. The average income tax rate is 72.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Latstatian economy, worth 55.4 trillion Credits 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 a slick, highly efficient, quite specialized black market in Trout Farming, Information Technology, Retail, and Arms Manufacturing. 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 78,018 Credits, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Young and brooding teens are welcomed with open arms to the Dogwarts School of Strangeness and Sorcery, the Treasury has been accused of flushing money down the toilet, parents dread their examinations more than their children, and citizens are deployed to barren deserts to protect small territorial claims. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. Latstat's national animal is the Tailor Bird, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Latstat is ranked 201,821^st in the world and 368^th in Starlight for Largest Insurance Industry, scoring zero on the Risk Expulsion Effectiveness Rating.