The United Socialist States of Mercuwury is a mammoth, genial nation, ruled by Rat with a fair hand, and renowned for its museums and concert halls, anti-smoking policies, and keen interest in outer space. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 7.261 billion Mercuwurians 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 enormous, socially-minded, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Giant Rat City. The average income tax rate is 92.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Mercuwurian economy, worth 927 trillion baht 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 mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism, Book Publishing, and Beef-Based Agriculture. Average income is an impressive 127,675 baht, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

City-slickers are jelly of all the farmland the government is giving away, park rangers perform full-body searches on suspected fungus smugglers, the Treasury has been accused of flushing money down the toilet, and deceased relatives are considered property to buy and sell. Crime is totally unknown. Mercuwury's national animal is the giant rat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Mercuwury is ranked 38,400^th in the world and 1,493^rd in Balder for Highest Average Incomes, with 127,675.69 Standard Monetary Units.