The Nomadic Peoples of Ratmen is a small, genial nation, renowned for its punitive income tax rates, devotion to social welfare, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic, devout population of 29 million ratmen 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 large, liberal, socially-minded, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Spirituality, and Administration. The average income tax rate is 57.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The struggling ratman economy, worth 573 billion nails a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is led by the Uranium Mining industry, with major contributions from Basket Weaving, Soda Sales, and Pizza Delivery. Average income is 19,781 nails, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Military funding has been stripped back, most voters only see their chosen representative visit once every election cycle, foreign despots proudly bandstand on ratman airwaves, and an endless multinational bureaucracy connects the Red Bloc. Crime is totally unknown. Ratmen's national animal is the mouse.

Ratmen is ranked 280,381^st in the world and 288^th in Forest for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring -77.78 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.