The United Socialist States of Almug is a colossal, safe nation, remarkable for its compulsory military service, state-planned economy, and punitive income tax rates. The hard-nosed, democratic population of 9.78 billion Almugians 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 enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Industry, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 52.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The large but inefficient Almugian economy, worth 319 trillion Dong a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a slick, highly efficient, quite specialized black market in Book Publishing, Basket Weaving, Retail, and Arms Manufacturing. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 32,656 Dong, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The mining industry is making inroads into environmentally sensitive areas and military spending is on the increase. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Almug's national animal is the Phu Quoc dog, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Almug is ranked 139,807^th in the world and 1^st in Communists Party for Lowest Crime Rates, with 61.85 law-abiding acts per hour.