The Republic of HALA MADRID is a huge, cultured nation, notable for its public floggings, keen interest in outer space, and restrictive gun laws. The compassionate population of 489 million HALA MADRIDians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The large, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Welfare. The average income tax rate is 68.6%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The HALA MADRIDian economy, worth 28.5 trillion bitcoins 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 Cheese Exports, Trout Farming, and Book Publishing. Average income is 58,272 bitcoins, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

It is illegal for police officers to carry out searches due to strict privacy laws, if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it... HALA MADRIDian satellites can detect it, for the sake of 'public interest' news programs tell viewers how to home-make Sarin gas bombs, and heartfelt sentiments are mercilessly marketed by a million-bitcoin treacle machine. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. HALA MADRID's national animal is the poo, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

HALA MADRID is ranked 63,732^nd in the world and 922^nd in The Communist Bloc for Healthiest Citizens, with 4.48 bananas ingested per day.