The Republic of Spike-Spiegel is a massive, safe nation, remarkable for its closed borders, frequent executions, and zero percent divorce rate. The hard-nosed population of 2.736 billion Spike-Spiegelians 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 government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Law & Order, and Industry. The average income tax rate is 44.2%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The strong Spike-Spiegelian economy, worth 118 trillion credits a year, is led by the Book Publishing industry, with major contributions from Retail, Information Technology, and Basket Weaving. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 43,325 credits, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.5 times as much as the poorest.

Women across the country are tying the knot, droves of former desperados are applying to join the border police, wedding bands come in pairs to form wedding manacles, and a nickname of "Doctor Death" probably indicates a decorated war hero. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Spike-Spiegel's national animal is the bounty hunter, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Spike-Spiegel is ranked 159,564^th in the world and 1,121^st in Remembrance for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring 284.27 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.