The Concordat of Pantalm is a titanic, socially progressive nation, ruled by the Directorate with an iron fist, and remarkable for its pith helmet sales, punitive income tax rates, and labour-free parental leave. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 23.862 billion subjects are ruled with an iron fist by the socialist government, which grants its people the freedom to do whatever they like so long as it doesn't involve getting richer than anybody else or challenging the government.

The large, corrupt, liberal, socially-minded, well-organized government is primarily concerned with Defense, with Administration, Education, and Industry also on the agenda. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Nexus. The income tax rate is 100%.

The frighteningly efficient Antarctican economy, worth an astonishing 13,249 trillion credits 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 an enormous, deeply entrenched, quite specialized black market in Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, 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 a breathtaking 555,236 credits, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Criminals and college students are taking an interest in the government's new weed-killing program, male cubicle workers stand up every time a woman enters the room, a signed affidavit from a prominent anti-corruption advocate declares that he is in fact a crook after all, and construction of the Really Big Hadron Collider is underway. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Pantalm's national animal is the none, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Hermeticism.

Pantalm is ranked 39,276^th in the world and 1^st in The Iron Valley for Most Extensive Civil Rights, with 80.17 Martin Luther King, Jr. Units.