The Empire of Cruel world is a colossal, cultured nation, remarkable for its disturbing lack of elderly people, public floggings, and punitive income tax rates. The hard-nosed, humorless, devout population of 4.1 billion Cruel worldians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The large, corrupt, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Industry. The average income tax rate is 67.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The all-consuming Cruel worldian economy, worth 423 trillion Duckcoins 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 large, well-organized, fairly diversified black market in Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, Furniture Restoration, and Cheese Exports. 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 an impressive 103,342 Duckcoins, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.5 times as much as the poorest.

Exorbitant spending on icebreakers breaks the ice at every budget meeting, 13-year-old internet trolls are treated as a threat on par with terrorists, a referendum must be held in order for any new law to be passed, and foreign leaders' Twitcher accounts are monitored for potential threats to national security. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Cruel world's national animal is the Duck, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Cruel world is ranked 310,729^th in the world and 1,308^th in Artificial Solar System for Most Compassionate Citizens, scoring 18.02 on the Kitten Softness Rating.