The People's Republic of Aspach is a mid-sized, environmentally stunning nation, renowned for its museums and concert halls, state-planned economy, and hatred of cheese. The compassionate, cynical population of 72 million Aspachians are ruled with an iron fist by the socialist government, which grants its people the freedom to do whatever they like so long as it doesn't involve getting richer than anybody else or challenging the government.

The enormous, liberal, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Welfare. The average income tax rate is 72.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The basket case Aspachian economy, worth 899 billion Aspes 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 Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Book Publishing, Trout Farming, and Arms Manufacturing. Average income is 12,493 Aspes, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Buses are widely regarded as the safest way to travel, the nation's atlases tend to go out of date every few weeks, there's a bright dawn ahead for Aspach, and children are disappointed to learn that cavemen never had a yabba-dabba-doo time riding dinosaurs to work. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Aspach's national animal is the Martin, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Aspach is ranked 182,903^rd in the world and 703^rd in Europe for Largest Trout Fishing Sector, scoring 723.8 on the Nemo Depletion Efficiency Index.