The State of Joy Russell is a gargantuan, environmentally stunning nation, remarkable for its punitive income tax rates. The hard-nosed, democratic population of 26.258 billion Joy Russellians are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The enormous, liberal, socially-minded, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Industry, Healthcare, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Capital Heights. The average income tax rate is 56.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The large but underdeveloped Joy Russellian economy, worth 467 trillion betales a year, is highly specialized and mostly made up of the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing and Soda Sales. Black market activity is frequent. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 17,807 betales, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Voting is voluntary and Joy Russell has designated Capital Heights as its capital city. Crime is well under control, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Joy Russell's national animal is the deer, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Joy Russell is ranked 122,245^th in the world and 3^rd in Bamako for Most Subsidized Industry, scoring 933.53 on the Gilded Widget Scale.