The Empire of Austerlits is a tiny, genial nation, remarkable for its punitive income tax rates, restrictive gun laws, and stringent health and safety legislation. The quiet, industrious population of 12 million Austerlitsians are prohibited from doing almost everything except voting, which they do timidly and conservatively.

The enormous, moralistic, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Welfare, and Education. The average income tax rate is 66.8%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The fragile Austerlitsian economy, worth 273 billion austrizzes a year, is quite specialized and led by the Trout Farming industry, with major contributions from Basket Weaving, Arms Manufacturing, and Woodchip Exports. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 22,810 austrizzes, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

It is illegal to make racist remarks in public, the alarmingly racist TV show 'Bigtopians Say the Darndest Things' is a hit, all major public areas are watched by police surveillance cameras, and goldfish bowls are three metres in diameter. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Austerlits's national animal is the onça, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Austerlits is ranked 248,660^th in the world and 16^th in Brasil1 for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 26.46 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.