The People's Republic of Dry Riverbeds is a tiny, orderly nation, remarkable for its keen interest in outer space, irreverence towards religion, and spontaneously combusting cars. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 9 million Dry Riverbedsians enjoy great individual freedoms in everything except elections, which, where they exist at all, are populist shams for a dictatorship government that has no intention of ever giving up power.

The minute, liberal, pro-business, well-organized government, or what there is of one, juggles the competing demands of Education, Law & Order, and Public Transport. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 4.7%.

The strong Dry Riverbedsian economy, worth 513 billion Guilders a year, is driven almost entirely by the private sector, which is fairly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Beef-Based Agriculture, Pizza Delivery, and Tourism. Average income is 57,021 Guilders, but there is an enormous disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 356,041 per year while the poor average 3,890, a ratio of 91.5 to 1.

Factory workers offered 20-hour shifts are expected to thank their bosses for the wonderful opportunity, footballers are doing aerobics in the sauna to build their hot weather endurance, hospitals fear government fines more than terrorist ransoms, and commemoration of the Great Talonia War costs almost as much as the war itself. Crime is a major problem, with the police force struggling against a lack of funding and a high mortality rate. Dry Riverbeds's national animal is the Walking Catfish.

Dry Riverbeds is ranked 34,106^th in the world and 179^th in Talonia for Most Secular, with 30.52 Atheism Rate.