The Pit of Endless Despair of The Pit of Endless Despair is a massive, orderly nation, ruled by Godfrey G Golden with an iron fist, and remarkable for its rum-swilling pirates, barren, inhospitable landscape, and pith helmet sales. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, humorless, devout population of 2.824 billion Customers are ruled with an iron fist by the corrupt, dictatorship government, which oppresses anyone who isn't on the board of a Fortune 500 company. Large corporations tend to be above the law, and use their financial clout to gain ever-increasing government benefits at the expense of the poor and unemployed.

The tiny, corrupt, moralistic, pro-business, well-organized government is primarily concerned with Defense, with Industry and Spirituality also on the agenda, while Environment and Education aren't funded at all. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of San Francisco. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 8.5%.

The frighteningly efficient Desparate economy, worth 541 trillion Beans a year, is led by the Arms Manufacturing industry, with significant contributions from Gambling, Uranium Mining, and Retail. Black market activity is extensive. Average income is an impressive 191,806 Beans, but there is a vast disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 1,768,595 per year while the poor average 2,084, a ratio of 848 to 1.

Foreign governments regularly accuse the Desparate military of war crimes, virtually all of the country's economic activity takes place in San Francisco, long-wed spouses often regret proposals they made when they were twenty, and wounded veterans can only get prosthetics if they agree to become walking billboards for the arms industry. Crime is all-pervasive, perhaps because of the country's complete lack of prisons. The Pit of Endless Despair's national animal is the Landlord, which is also the nation's favorite main course, and its national religion is Capitalism.

The Pit of Endless Despair is ranked 39,886^th in the world and 18,049^th in Chicken overlords for Most Extreme, scoring 34.65 on the Paul-Nader Subjective Decentrality Index.