The Republic of Southern Appalachia is a very large, efficient nation, notable for its keen interest in outer space, public floggings, and frequent executions. The hard-nosed, hard-working, democratic population of 137 million Southern Appalachians are effectively ruled by a group of massive corporations, who run for political office and provide their well-off citizens with world-class goods and services. Their poorer citizens, however, are mostly starving to death while being urged to go out and get real jobs. The populace has reasonably extensive civil rights, although these are mostly aimed at allowing them to buy whatever they like.

The tiny government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Welfare, and Education. The average income tax rate is 6.0%.

The very strong Southern Appalachian economy, worth 10.6 trillion Freedom Seeds a year, is driven almost entirely by the private sector, which is fairly diversified and led by the Tourism industry, with major contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Beef-Based Agriculture, and Woodchip Exports. Average income is 77,603 Freedom Seeds, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 3.6 times as much as the poorest.

Fur coats have become the latest fashion trend, the populace has developed a mortal fear of the woods, the number of deaths due to poor fungus identification is mushrooming, and the nation's war memorials are being torn down and replaced with peace gardens. Crime, especially youth-related, is moderate, probably because of the absence of a police force. Southern Appalachia's national animal is the Porcupine.

Southern Appalachia is ranked 76,001^st in the world and 63^rd in United States of America for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 102.46 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.