The Grand Duchy of Sandwidge is a huge, genial nation, remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, state-planned economy, and punitive income tax rates. The quiet, industrious population of 709 million Sandwidgeans are prohibited from doing almost everything except voting, which they do timidly and conservatively.

The large, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Education, and Welfare. The average income tax rate is 52.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish Sandwidgean economy, worth 17.3 trillion widges a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector is dominated by the Trout Farming industry, with significant contributions from Door-to-door Insurance Sales, Basket Weaving, and Information Technology. Average income is 24,355 widges, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Surrogate mothers are encouraged to refer to their wombs as 'rental space', national parks have long lines of different gender-specific 'Porta-Pottys', solving crossword puzzles requires fluency in at least five languages, and the Finance Ministry posts hourly updates on where taxpayer money is spent. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Sandwidge's national animal is the lion, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Sandwidge is ranked 260,630^th in the world and 1^st in Sandwidge for Largest Black Market, with 103 billion Standard Monetary Units.