The Republic of Vurk is a huge, safe nation, notable for its keen interest in outer space, frequent executions, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate population of 244 million Vurks are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Defense. The average income tax rate is 76.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Vurkian economy, worth 17.9 trillion Credits a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector is led by the Information Technology industry, with major contributions from Book Publishing, Arms Manufacturing, and Tourism. Average income is 73,168 Credits, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Military officers are given medals for disobeying orders, the government is continually probing the galaxy in search of alien life, the importance of winning Olympic gold medals is indoctrinated from an early age, and tax-payers are funding ever more extravagant movie projects. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Vurk's national animal is the Owl, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

Vurk is ranked 29,555^th in the world and 412^th in Europe for Most Advanced Public Education, scoring 6,434.62 on the Edu-tellignce® Test Score.