The Republic of Thing 4 is a colossal, safe nation, renowned for its strictly enforced bedtime, state-planned economy, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, humorless, devout population of 3.634 billion Thing 4ians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Defense, and Education. The average income tax rate is 71.5%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The thriving Thing 4ian economy, worth 286 trillion dollars 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, quite specialized black market in Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, Soda Sales, and Tourism. 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 78,928 dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Party-lovers often change religions just for the weekend, in-cite-ment never happens at tea parties, cute fluffy little Leaders are increasingly popular exotic pets, and emergency vehicles have built-in nudge bars to give uncooperative drivers a "gentle" push. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Thing 4's national animal is the sheep, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Thing 4 is ranked 36,056^th in the world and 10^th in Distorted Memories for Highest Average Tax Rates, with 71.46 Effective Tax Rate.