The Lost Weekend of UPC is a mammoth, socially progressive nation, ruled by Phoebe with an even hand, and notable for its smutty television, national health service, and irreverence towards religion. The compassionate, cheerful population of 9.072 billion Radiants 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 Education, Environment, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Urithiru. The average income tax rate is 97.5%.

The frighteningly efficient Radiant economy, worth a remarkable 1,165 trillion Diamond Broams a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is extremely specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing. Average income is an impressive 128,490 Diamond Broams, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The government has solemnly sworn not to look up other nations' internet browsing history if the favor is returned, the weather report is the prisoners' favourite programme, construction of the Really Big Hadron Collider is underway, and foreign nations kill migratory animals at random in the hope that UPC will pay them to stop. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. UPC's national animal is the Windspren, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is the Church of Honor.

UPC is ranked 200,005^th in the world and 709^th in Europeia for Most Rebellious Youth, scoring -4 on the Stark-Dean Displacement Index.