The United Socialist States of Union for Progress is a large, cultured nation, notable for its irreverence towards religion, punitive income tax rates, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate population of 119 million Good persons 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 Welfare. The average income tax rate is 79.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The sizeable but underdeveloped Union for Progressian economy, worth 4.99 trillion Linus 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 major contributions from Book Publishing, Tourism, and Uranium Mining. Average income is 41,894 Linus, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Union for Progressian watches list strained wrists as a common side effect, spies caught red-handed are served cocktails on their first-class flights home, producers insist that movie stars wear crash helmets in every scene, and the government's suggestions box is curiously empty these days. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Union for Progress's national animal is the Bear, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Union for Progress is ranked 21,099^th in the world and 50^th in The Glorious Nations of Iwaku for Most Cultured, scoring 87 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.