The Seismic Disturbances of Planet Argo is a colossal, genial nation, ruled by Domar with an even hand, and remarkable for its ban on automobiles, avant-garde cinema, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, devout population of 7.514 billion Aquans are prohibited from doing almost everything except voting, which they do timidly and conservatively.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, moralistic, socially-minded morass — juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Welfare, and Spirituality. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Aqua-City. The average income tax rate is 71.1%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but stagnant Aquan economy, worth 67.8 trillion Ambergris 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 slick, highly efficient, extremely specialized black market in Basket Weaving. 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 9,028 Ambergris, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The first sword of Planet Argo does not run, theatre may or may not be changing for the better but it is being changed for good, wedding bands come in pairs to form wedding manacles, and purchasing a can of Addison Cola requires a wheelbarrow of cash. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Planet Argo's national animal is the Sur-snake, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Planet Argo is ranked 94,880^th in the world and 77^th in United Earth Space Probe Agency for Lowest Crime Rates, with 66.52 law-abiding acts per hour.