The People's Republic of Geckos with Shades is a huge, genial nation, renowned for its irreverence towards religion, devotion to social welfare, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate population of 226 million Geckos with Shades enjoy extensive civil rights and enjoy a level of social equality free from the usual accompanying government corruption.

The enormous, liberal, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Healthcare, and Education. The average income tax rate is 73.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but stagnant a Gecko with Shades economy, worth 1.53 trillion Crickets a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector is led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Trout Farming, Basket Weaving, and Furniture Restoration. Average income is 6,765 Crickets, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Discarded pennies litter the streets, it is illegal to make racist remarks in public, passionate nomination battles are often as intense as general elections, and military strategists are questioning the wisdom of subsidizing the economies of sworn enemies. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Geckos with Shades's national animal is the Geico Gecko, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Geckos with Shades is ranked 215,153^rd in the world and 7,719^th in the South Pacific for Most Advanced Public Education, scoring 429.16 on the Edu-tellignce® Test Score.