The Empire of Artstokska is a very large, safe nation, remarkable for its compulsory military service, irreverence towards religion, and punitive income tax rates. The cynical population of 166 million Artstokskans are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The enormous, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Industry. The average income tax rate is 70.8%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but inefficient Artstokskan economy, worth 6.37 trillion dollars 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 led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Retail, and Uranium Mining. Average income is 38,376 dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

When their backs are against the walls Artstokskans look out for gay men, park rangers perform full-body searches on suspected fungus smugglers, vats of anabolic steroids are being dumped into the ocean to make Artstokskan mussels the biggest in Silly, and all you have to do is pray to get into Artstokska. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Artstokska's national animal is the Vulture.

Artstokska is ranked 92,670^th in the world and 1^st in Silly for Most Patriotic, with 15.86 flags saluted per person per day.