The Benevolent Dictatorship of Laerod is a gargantuan, socially progressive nation, ruled by Andrew Lasius with an iron fist, and remarkable for its keen interest in outer space, anti-smoking policies, and absence of drug laws. The compassionate, cynical, devout population of 42.216 billion Laerodines are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked morass — juggles the competing demands of Education, Welfare, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Cascade. The income tax rate is 100%.

The frighteningly efficient Laerodine economy, worth a remarkable 7,970 trillion tarads a year, is driven almost entirely by government activity. The industrial sector, which is extremely specialized, is mostly made up of the Book Publishing industry, with significant contributions from Tourism. Average income is an impressive 188,797 tarads, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Leather-clad individuals can be seen walking their slaves in public parks, students are wary of colorfully decorated new teachers with names like Professor Pipsqueak, the new Refuse Hills housing development is under construction, and houses and businesses are bulldozed to make way for ever-expanding cemeteries. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Laerod's national animal is the raven, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Laerod is ranked 2,892^nd in the world and 2^nd in Snazzy for Safest, scoring 140.5 on the Bubble-Rapp Safety Rating.