The Free Land of Affluens is a colossal, efficient nation, ruled by Eric Palme with a fair hand, and renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape, national health service, and restrictive gun laws. The hard-nosed, democratic, humorless population of 7.693 billion Affluensians love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The minute, corrupt, socially-minded, outspoken government, or what there is of one, juggles the competing demands of Administration, Industry, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Freedom City. Income tax is unheard of.

The frighteningly efficient Affluensian economy, worth a remarkable 2,571 trillion €s a year, is broadly diversified and led by the Retail industry, with significant contributions from Gambling, Soda Sales, and Information Technology. Black market activity is rampant. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an amazing 334,270 €s, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

A ban on unsolicited cold calling in all forms is in effect, social networking sites have discussion groups devoted to planning terrorist attacks, country folk are sent to obligatory boarding schools to learn how to be civilized, and hundreds of subterranean tunnels are being built as part of "Project Morlock". Crime, especially youth-related, is so common that it is unusual to encounter someone following the law, probably because of the absence of a police force. Affluens's national animal is the Night Owl, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to toxic air pollution, and its national religion is humanism.

Affluens is ranked 257,775^th in the world and 165^th in The Social Liberal Union for Largest Welfare Programs, scoring -35.5 on the Safety Net Mesh Density Rating.