The Sylvanic Colony of Arbourea is a gargantuan, safe nation, renowned for its ban on automobiles, state-planned economy, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate population of 18.238 billion Arboureans are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass — juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Spirituality, and Education. The average income tax rate is 76.6%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The large but stagnant Arbourean economy, worth 318 trillion saars 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 Beef-Based Agriculture, Woodchip Exports, Trout Farming, and Pizza Delivery. 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 17,467 saars, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Extreme political groups are outlawed, anti-government web sites are springing up, X-Files ratings have hit an all-time low, and citizens are permitted to carry concealed handguns. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Arbourea's national animal is the white cypress tree, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Arbourea is ranked 237,680^th in the world and 7^th in Conifer for Lowest Overall Tax Burden, scoring -29.09 on the Hayek Index.