The Republic of Noatak Wild River is a massive, efficient nation, notable for its closed borders, daily referendums, and keen interest in outer space. The hard-nosed, humorless, devout population of 2.575 billion Noatak Wild Riverians are highly moralistic and fiercely conservative, in the sense that they tend to believe most things should be outlawed. People who have good jobs and work quietly at them are lauded; others are viewed with suspicion.

The large, corrupt, moralistic government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Industry, and Administration. The average income tax rate is 72.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Noatak Wild Riverian economy, worth 273 trillion dollars a year, is led by the Retail industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Woodchip Exports, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is an impressive 106,256 dollars, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.2 times as much as the poorest.

Children are raised bilingual from an early age, an eye for an eye leaves Noatak Wild River blind, every microwave and toaster is being disassembled and probed by inspectors, and fast-food chefs regularly win Health Innovation Awards for spitting on burgers. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Noatak Wild River's national animal is the NPS, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Noatak Wild River is ranked 76,482^nd in the world and 1,501^st in The North Pacific for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring 2,983.01 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.