The United Socialist States of Viriconium is a tiny, safe nation, notable for its state-planned economy, devotion to social welfare, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 9 million Viriconese love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass — juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Education, and Law & Order. The average income tax rate is 76.8%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The basket case Viriconiumian economy, worth 76.8 billion shillings a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector is dominated by the Book Publishing industry, with significant contributions from Pizza Delivery, Retail, and Cheese Exports. Average income is 8,533 shillings, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

People seem disproportionately distraught when told a museum has a phones-off policy, the working classes live and die on the fields of the farming communes, people are offered free trials to go to trial, and prolonged government investigations are a common revenge tactic among spurned significant others. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Viriconium's national animal is the mutt, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Viriconium is ranked 329,391^st in the world and 4,136^th in The East Pacific for Highest Disposable Incomes, with 1,979.7 Standard Monetary Units.