The Department of Resources of Greater Thistand is a titanic, environmentally stunning nation, remarkable for its enslaved workforce, compulsory military service, and irreverence towards religion. The hard-nosed, cynical population of 10.654 billion Thistandese are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The tiny, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Healthcare. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 8.5%.

The Thistandese economy, worth 697 trillion Ç⁄s 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 slick, highly efficient, broadly diversified black market in Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, Cheese Exports, and Book Publishing. 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 65,507 Ç⁄s, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 188,318 per year while the poor average 18,111, a ratio of 10.4 to 1.

Family trees become bare as entire branches are lopped off, the term cold case has taken on a very literal meaning, going on a diet invalidates your passport, and children seem to be getting better at lying these days. Crime, especially youth-related, is relatively low, thanks to a capable police force. Greater Thistand's national animal is the North Sand Squirrel, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Greater Thistand is ranked 73,917^th in the world and 3^rd in Bisexual for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 130.09 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.