The Republic of Galdona is a huge, socially progressive nation, remarkable for its smutty television, daily referendums, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate population of 509 million Galdonans are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Echelon. The average income tax rate is 72.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Galdonan economy, worth 33.5 trillion gilders a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector is led by the Tourism industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing, Information Technology, and Furniture Restoration. Average income is 65,870 gilders, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The banshee wail foretells skies of death, it turns out that you actually can put a price on intangible cultural heritage, young children are learning advanced physics to scientifically disprove the existence of Santa Claus, and future forecasters fearfully discuss grey goo and human obsolescence. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Galdona's national animal is the falcon, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Galdona is ranked 285,385^th in the world and 5,309^th in the South Pacific for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring -14.6 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.