The Schlaraffenstaat of Shetl is a gargantuan, genial nation, ruled by Stock Photo Model Ariane with a fair hand, and remarkable for its prohibition of alcohol, anti-smoking policies, and astonishingly minimal parenting. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 21.596 billion Menschen love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Environment, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Menschenbad. The income tax rate is 100%.

The frighteningly efficient Menschliche economy, worth a remarkable 5,500 trillion Big Zasters a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is mostly made up of the Book Publishing industry, with major contributions from Information Technology. Average income is an amazing 254,716 Big Zasters, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The new intercity submarine SSN Landpony Warrior instills terror in claustrophobic travellers, the nation faces constant invasions by foreign boy bands, there's nothing special about Stock Photo Model Ariane, and old people living in plastic bubbles complain about a new type of social isolation. Crime is totally unknown. Shetl's national animal is the Landpony, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Nontheist Quakerism.

Shetl is ranked 151^st in the world and 3^rd in Europe for Most Extensive Public Healthcare, scoring 22,931.53 on the Theresa-Nightingale Rating.