The United Socialist States of Starmaria is a mid-sized, genial nation, remarkable for its punitive income tax rates, devotion to social welfare, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic population of 74 million Starmarians 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 Welfare, Education, and Healthcare. The average income tax rate is 72.0%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but stagnant Starmarian economy, worth 1.08 trillion Mars 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 mostly made up of the Trout Farming industry, with significant contributions from Basket Weaving and Door-to-door Insurance Sales. Average income is 14,636 Mars, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The government has declared its commitment to multilateralism, armed war-criminals gain asylum if deemed 'fabulous' enough, park rangers perform full-body searches on suspected fungus smugglers, and scientists earn more grant money for reproducing old experiments than trying anything new. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Starmaria's national animal is the Starravia, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Starmaria is ranked 68,620^th in the world and 87^th in Eladria for Most Cultured, scoring 69 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.