The United Socialist States of Mascouten is a large, genial nation, remarkable for its museums and concert halls, state-planned economy, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 119 million Mascoutens 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 enormous, socially-minded, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Welfare, and Healthcare. The average income tax rate is 75.5%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but underdeveloped Mascouten economy, worth 4.87 trillion dollars a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is dominated by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism, Beef-Based Agriculture, and Woodchip Exports. Average income is 40,964 dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Bigtopian interference in domestic elections is always democratically sanctioned, the army lures cannon fodder with promises of a college education, board shorts have replaced board rooms, and innocent defendants often plead guilty for fear of receiving a much harsher sentence before jury. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Mascouten's national animal is the beaver, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Mascouten is ranked 297,670^th in the world and 550^th in The Communist Bloc for Largest Populations, with 119 million capita.