The Free Land of Ponds 13 is a massive, safe nation, renowned for its public floggings, frequent executions, and ban on automobiles. The quiet, industrious population of 1.72 billion Ponds 13ians are highly moralistic and fiercely conservative, in the sense that they tend to believe most things should be outlawed. People who have good jobs and work quietly at them are lauded; others are viewed with suspicion.

The medium-sized, moralistic government juggles the competing demands of Education, Welfare, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 24.5%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The Ponds 13ian economy, worth 85.3 trillion drops a year, is led by the Woodchip Exports industry, with major contributions from Basket Weaving, Retail, and Beef-Based Agriculture. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 49,574 drops, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Exorbitant spending on icebreakers breaks the ice at every budget meeting, the national guard is mobilized whenever a mother gets separated from her child at the mall, school football matches are usually five-a-side, and the Ministry of Health has reported a sharp increase in the incidence of delayed menopause. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Ponds 13's national animal is the fish, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to heavy metals seepage into national waterways.

Ponds 13 is ranked 41,421^st in the world and 2,154^th in The North Pacific for Most Valuable International Artwork, with 3.77 Bank.