The Federation of Lan Cargerio is a fledgling, genial nation, renowned for its state-planned economy, irreverence towards religion, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 6 million Lan Cargerioans 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, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Education, and Healthcare. The average income tax rate is 42.9%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The basket case Lan Cargerioan economy, worth 70.5 billion guilders 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, quite specialized black market in Trout Farming, Woodchip Exports, Information Technology, and Furniture Restoration. 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 11,748 guilders, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Military funding has been stripped back, same-sex marriages are increasingly common, there has been a rapid increase of noise complaints over the sound of buzzing bees, and the new national campaign exhorts men to "Show Some Class - Don't Sit On Your Ass". Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Lan Cargerio's national animal is the dragon.

Lan Cargerio is ranked 167,959^th in the world and 379^th in Horizon for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 67.82 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.