The UPC of Card Clone 098 is a colossal, safe nation, renowned for its closed borders, smutty television, and suspicion of poets. The cynical, humorless, devout population of 5.967 billion Card Clone 098ians are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The large, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Law & Order, and Industry. The average income tax rate is 69.1%.

The frighteningly efficient Card Clone 098ian economy, worth 644 trillion Cards 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 large, well-organized, fairly diversified black market in Arms Manufacturing, Tourism, Uranium Mining, and Book Publishing. 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 an impressive 108,028 Cards, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.8 times as much as the poorest.

There's sophisticated talk of revolution within the ever-expanding mining colonies, liberals and conservatives try to disqualify each other's candidates on the grounds that "their ideas would never work in the real world", foreign leaders who don't applaud Leader's speeches are regarded as enemies of Card Clone 098, and politicians accepting drinks in bars are executed for taking bribes. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Card Clone 098's national animal is the Raven, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Card Clone 098 is ranked 43,451^st in the world and 453^rd in Memeland United for Lowest Crime Rates, with 76.32 law-abiding acts per hour.