The State of Hyphen is a mammoth, environmentally stunning nation, remarkable for its museums and concert halls, frequent executions, and rampant corporate plagiarism. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, humorless, devout population of 9.483 billion Hyphenians 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 Administration, Law & Order, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Samarra. The average income tax rate is 91.5%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Hyphenian economy, worth a remarkable 1,718 trillion gold dinars 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 an enormous, deeply entrenched, highly specialized black market in Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, Beef-Based Agriculture, and Tourism. 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 an impressive 181,221 gold dinars, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 2.8 times as much as the poorest.

The military invades any neighboring nation with the gall to criticize its policies, it is illegal to carry an umbrella when the official weather forecast predicts a sunny day, any citizen who cries is immediately assigned a psychiatrist, and kindergartners are taught to loathe poor trigger discipline and citrus. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Hyphen's national animal is the black eagle, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Hyphen is ranked 328,636^th in the world and 4,700^th in The North Pacific for Largest Pizza Delivery Sector, scoring -20.71 on the Pepperoni Propulsion Productivity Index.