The Commonwealth of Slates Island is a huge, socially progressive nation, notable for its multi-spousal wedding ceremonies, state-planned economy, and irreverence towards religion. The democratic population of 466 million Slates Islanders 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 tiny, liberal government juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Healthcare, and Defense. The average income tax rate is 7.2%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but inefficient Slater economy, worth 21.3 trillion Rocks a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a slick, highly efficient, broadly diversified black market in Basket Weaving, Gambling, Door-to-door Insurance Sales, and Tourism. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 45,734 Rocks, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Citizens are encouraged to report friends, family members or co-workers who seem depressed to the government for "counselling", angry citizens complain that there isn't enough geographical diversity on the new banknotes, scientists regularly clone human beings for research purposes, and state-manufactured hammers and sickles are here to stay. Crime is relatively low. Slates Island's national animal is the Seagull.

Slates Island is ranked 62,210^th in the world and 1^st in Buzzards Bay for Most Secular, with 19.64 Atheism Rate.