The Retro-Futuristic Starship of New Astri is a colossal, genial nation, ruled by Multivac with a fair hand, and remarkable for its daily referendums, state-planned economy, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic population of 5.866 billion New Astrians 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 enormous, liberal, socially-minded, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Healthcare, Education, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Neo Io. The average income tax rate is 82.3%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The all-consuming New Astrian economy, worth 518 trillion Credits a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Trout Farming and Retail. Average income is 88,357 Credits, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Solving crossword puzzles requires fluency in at least five languages, elderly citizens regularly buy posh multimillion-Credit mansions, authorities are looking for a stool pigeon to rat out who is stealing food from pigeon toilets, and Multivac is plotting to coup the Pacific (New Astri has found 1 easter egg). Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. New Astri's national animal is the Vacuumorph, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Zommunism.

New Astri is ranked 291,375^th in the world and 1,482^nd in The Communist Bloc for Largest Furniture Restoration Industry, scoring -12 on the Spitz-Pollish Productivity Index.