The State of Grenfell is a gargantuan, orderly nation, ruled by the Governor with an iron fist, and renowned for its compulsory military service, punitive income tax rates, and restrictive gun laws. The cynical population of 23.829 billion Grenfellians are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized morass — juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Spirituality, and Social Policy. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Capital Heights. The average income tax rate is 77.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The large but stagnant Grenfellian economy, worth 143 trillion betales a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is led by the Pizza Delivery industry, with major contributions from Book Publishing, Arms Manufacturing, and Retail. Average income is 6,011 betales, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

TV shows must meet strict ethnicity quotas, it is illegal to make racist remarks in public, Grenfell has designated Capital Heights as its capital city, and The Governor has just been declared ruler of Grenfell in an international press conference. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Grenfell's national animal is the deer, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Grenfell is ranked 71,450^th in the world and 1^st in Saint Peter Port for Lowest Crime Rates, with 69.86 law-abiding acts per hour.