The Crowned Republic of Betmet is a gargantuan, cultured nation, remarkable for its keen interest in outer space, restrictive gun laws, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 10.216 billion Betmetians hold their civil and political rights very dear, although the wealthy and those in business tend to be viewed with suspicion.

The large, liberal government juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Port des Roses. The average income tax rate is 76.8%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Betmetian economy, worth a remarkable 1,322 trillion Ridgers a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism, Book Publishing, and Basket Weaving. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 129,495 Ridgers, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Welfare recipients are milking the government for all they've got, athletic teenagers are among the wealthiest members of society, one-man canoes fitted with the latest tracking technology leave no room for one man, and Port Des Roses Preparatory School for the Exceedingly Wealthy's basketball team is having a few off-years. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. Betmet's national animal is the Royal Bull, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Betmet is ranked 11,398^th in the world and 4^th in Ridgefield for Most Cultured, scoring 113 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.