The People's Republic of Great Lakes Nations is a massive, genial nation, notable for its irreverence towards religion, punitive income tax rates, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 1.809 billion 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 52.8%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but sluggish Great Lakes Nationsian economy, worth 47.2 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 26,101 Great Lake Dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Great Lakes Nations recently decided against having a capital city, soldiers must key in their passwords every time they want to reload their weapons, a primitive society is being eroded as its youth flock to the modern world, and the government has declined to declare any particular religion as its 'official' one. 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 42,798^th in the world and 2,126^th in Balder for Safest, scoring 104.99 on the Bubble-Rapp Safety Rating.