The Loving Couple of -Shipping-Fan- is a colossal, efficient nation, ruled by Tyler with an iron fist, and remarkable for its rampant corporate plagiarism, smutty television, and triple-decker prams. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless population of 6.459 billion -Shipping-Fan-ians are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The large, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Law & Order, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Amber Beach. The average income tax rate is 70.9%.

The frighteningly efficient -Shipping-Fan-ian economy, worth 984 trillion dollars a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Retail, Arms Manufacturing, and Uranium Mining. Black market activity is rampant. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 152,490 dollars, with the richest citizens earning 5.2 times as much as the poorest.

Sausages are seldom seen in the supermarket, mothers are routinely abandoning their children in the name of women's rights, "Tyler got your tongue?" has become a popular idiom, and military equipment is being auctioned off to extend comatose centenarians' lives. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. -Shipping-Fan-'s national animal is the dove, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Cards.

-Shipping-Fan- is ranked 216,330^th in the world and 556^th in The Communist Bloc for Most Armed, with 0.24 weapons per person.