The Socialist Paradise of Spruce is a massive, socially progressive nation, ruled by Thomas O'Leary with an iron fist, and remarkable for its museums and concert halls, rampant corporate plagiarism, and keen interest in outer space. The compassionate, cynical population of 1.727 billion Spruceans are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The large, corrupt, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Defense, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Hivetown. The average income tax rate is 93.0%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Sprucean economy, worth 250 trillion hearts a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Arms Manufacturing, Tourism, and Book Publishing. Average income is an impressive 145,050 hearts, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Most people suffer from some form of hearing loss, returning tourists and businessmen are detained without trial if they belong to the "wrong" religion, Thomas O'Leary is called 'Patches' at international summits, and every day has been a surprise since weather reporters turned to consulting ancient totems for their seven-day forecasts. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Spruce's national animal is the honey bee, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Spruce is ranked 8,939^th in the world and 141^st in Europe for Most Advanced Public Education, scoring 11,786.71 on the Edu-tellignce® Test Score.