The Reformed Territories of Bursken is a massive, socially progressive nation, ruled by Jonny Goldstar with a fair hand, and notable for its museums and concert halls, smutty television, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 4.172 billion Burskonians are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The large government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Treskon. The average income tax rate is 85.6%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Burskenian economy, worth 648 trillion Stavs a year, is led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Tourism, Book Publishing, and Beef-Based Agriculture. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 155,353 Stavs, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Most of the nation's wealthy aristocrats are dentists, the government has begun breaking all large businesses into thousands of mom-and-pop general stores, international tensions are high as Bursken threatens any government with the audacity to arrest its citizens, and foreign leaders are advising that Jonny Goldstar's letters must have gotten lost in the mail. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Bursken's national animal is the falcon, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Kadores.

Bursken is ranked 7,280^th in the world and 89^th in Europeia for Smartest Citizens, with 108.84 quips per hour.