The Democratic Republic of Skorn is a small, environmentally stunning nation, renowned for its compulsory military service, irreverence towards religion, and restrictive gun laws. The cynical population of 26 million Citizens are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The enormous, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Education, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 70.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The struggling Skornite economy, worth 549 billion Bloodbanks 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 mostly made up of the Trout Farming industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology, Door-to-door Insurance Sales, and Cheese Exports. Average income is 21,131 Bloodbanks, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

A large-scale revitalization of the education system is underway, organ donation is compulsory, cotton candy made from genuine cotton cellulose doesn't quite satisfy, and the mining industry is making inroads into environmentally sensitive areas. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Skorn's national animal is the Splithead Lizard, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Skorn is ranked 283,175^th in the world and 9^th in Pussy for Largest Gambling Industry, scoring -13.27 on the Kelly Criterion Productivity Index.