The United Socialist States of Puddinia is a huge, safe nation, renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape, compulsory military service, and flagrant waste-dumping. The hard-nosed, cynical population of 302 million Puddinians are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The enormous, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Tastigrad. The average income tax rate is 75.0%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Puddinian economy, worth 22.5 trillion deniers a year, is fairly diversified and led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Uranium Mining, Retail, and Woodchip Exports. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 74,544 deniers, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.3 times as much as the poorest.

Puddinia has designated Tastigrad as its capital city, residents of new housing subdivisions complain about the total absence of supermarkets and restaurants, stylish juvenile delinquents are highly overrepresented in fatal motorcycle accidents, and video evidence of cruel animal experiments tends to be of poor quality. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Puddinia's national animal is the red bear, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Puddinia is ranked 298,765^th in the world and 21^st in The Anduavas for Largest Basket Weaving Sector, scoring -8.12 on the Hickory Productivity Index.