The Protectorate of Spice Harvester 286 is a colossal, efficient nation, remarkable for its barren, inhospitable landscape, keen interest in outer space, and absence of drug laws. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical, humorless, devout population of 8.389 billion Spice Harvester 286ians 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 medium-sized, corrupt, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Industry, Administration, and Defense. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 26.7%.

The frighteningly efficient Spice Harvester 286ian economy, worth 635 trillion spices 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 a large, well-organized, quite specialized black market in Information Technology, Pizza Delivery, Retail, and Soda Sales. 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 75,781 spices, but there is a large disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 289,701 per year while the poor average 13,698, a ratio of 21.1 to 1.

The government is encouraging violence on television, prison libraries are being replaced with interrogation chambers, citizens are more concerned about voting for Big Brother contestants than politicians, and there's a hole in the heart of every Spice Harvester 286ian city. Crime is a major problem, with the police force struggling against a lack of funding and a high mortality rate. Spice Harvester 286's national animal is the sandworm, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Spice Harvester 286 is ranked 289,253^rd in the world and 1,549^th in Jihad Army of the Emperor for Lowest Crime Rates, with 33.61 law-abiding acts per hour.