The Eternal Misfortune of Thalasse is a gargantuan, safe nation, ruled by Leader with a fair hand, and remarkable for its museums and concert halls, free-roaming dinosaurs, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful, devout population of 19.624 billion Thalasseans love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, socially-minded, outspoken government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Education, Environment, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Thalasse City. The income tax rate is 100%.

The frighteningly efficient Thalassean economy, worth a remarkable 6,564 trillion Flowers a year, is driven almost entirely by government activity, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is extremely specialized, is mostly made up of the Book Publishing industry, with major contributions from Tourism. State-owned companies are the norm. Average income is an amazing 334,526 Flowers, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Therapists can always squeeze in another house-call, country folk are sent to obligatory boarding schools to learn how to be civilized, they who do not work shall not eat, and the nation's museums are real penny-pinchers. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Thalasse's national animal is the Radioactive Butterfly, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is Peace.

Thalasse is ranked 66^th in the world and 2^nd in Pencil Sharpeners Puppet Storage for Lowest Crime Rates, with 303.62 law-abiding acts per hour.