The Struggling Musician of Its hard to be the Bard is a colossal, safe nation, remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, rampant corporate plagiarism, and state-planned economy. The quiet, industrious population of 6.544 billion Its hard to be the Bardians are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The large, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Education, and Defense. The average income tax rate is 39.6%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The large but sluggish Its hard to be the Bardian economy, worth 127 trillion Nat20s 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 slick, highly efficient black market in Uranium Mining, Information Technology, Furniture Restoration, and Woodchip Exports. 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 19,546 Nat20s, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

School guidance counselors recommend monastic vows as an alternative to higher education, business meetings across the country are interrupted by the sound of squeaking whoopee-cushions, Leader has declared a weed sticking through a crack in the sidewalk to be the nation's newest green space, and the government recently donated a surfboard to an impoverished family in a landlocked region. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Its hard to be the Bard's national animal is the Charisma, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Its hard to be the Bard is ranked 150,154^th in the world and 413^th in the Outback for Lowest Crime Rates, with 63.14 law-abiding acts per hour.