The Socialist Paradise of Spruce is a mammoth, cultured nation, ruled by Thomas O'Leary with an iron fist, and renowned for its free-roaming dinosaurs, absence of drug laws, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, cynical population of 6.484 billion Spruceans are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

The large, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Defense. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Hivetown. The average income tax rate is 95.3%.

The frighteningly efficient Sprucean economy, worth a remarkable 1,193 trillion hearts 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 large, well-organized black market in Information Technology, Arms Manufacturing, Tourism, and Beef-Based Agriculture. 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 an impressive 184,056 hearts, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Keeping the lights on keeps the lights on for increasing amounts of Spruceans, the government denies any involvement in the release of the Hot Load computer virus, government leaders testify at international tribunals on why the sun went out, and self-proclaimed free-thinkers line up for their weekly sermons. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown. Spruce's national animal is the honey bee, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies, and its national religion is State Atheism.

Spruce is ranked 16,033^rd in the world and 83^rd in Europe for Most Corrupt Governments, with 123.92 kickbacks per hour.