The Armed Republic of Mercs and Smugglers is a massive, safe nation, remarkable for its complete lack of prisons, daily referendums, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic population of 2.434 billion Mercs and Smugglersians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Environment. The average income tax rate is 69.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish Mercs and Smugglersian economy, worth 68.4 trillion Pounds a year, is quite specialized and led by the Basket Weaving industry, with major contributions from Pizza Delivery, Book Publishing, and Information Technology. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 28,094 Pounds, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Moonshine has made a resurgence, corporate lawyers are joyfully combing through the new tax code for any new loopholes for their clients, criminals and college students are taking an interest in the government's new weed-killing program, and the nation's gigantic air force is both respected and feared. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Mercs and Smugglers's national animal is the Dragon, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Mercs and Smugglers is ranked 69,327^th in the world and 49^th in A Taco Paradise for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 110.18 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.