The People's Republic of Great Lakes Nations is a huge, genial nation, notable for its state-planned economy, irreverence towards religion, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic population of 558 million Great Lake Nationsians 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 large, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Milwaukee-Chicago. The average income tax rate is 53.6%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish Great Lakes Nationsian economy, worth 13.5 trillion Great Lake Dollars a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Trout Farming industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing and Information Technology. Average income is 24,122 Great Lake Dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Parking lots are littered with coffee cups and doughnut crumbs, more sidewalk is dedicated to animals than people, copies of the constitution are used as toilet paper, and Great Lakes Nations recently decided against having a capital city. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Great Lakes Nations's national animal is the White Tail Deer, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Great Lakes Nations is ranked 105,956^th in the world and 1,255^th in The Communist Bloc for Largest Welfare Programs, scoring 1,145.96 on the Safety Net Mesh Density Rating.