The Incorporated States of East Hearth is a huge, efficient nation, remarkable for its compulsory military service, frequent executions, and complete absence of social welfare. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 264 million East Hearthians are rabid consumers, partly through choice and partly because the government tells them to and dissenters tend to vanish from their homes at night.

The tiny, pro-business government juggles the competing demands of Defense, Law & Order, and Education. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 7.3%.

The powerhouse East Hearthian economy, worth 22.4 trillion Gold Standards a year, is driven almost entirely by the private sector, which is broadly diversified and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Gambling, Arms Manufacturing, and Pizza Delivery. Average income is 84,757 Gold Standards, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 307,053 per year while the poor average 16,679, a ratio of 18.4 to 1.

Pollution is on the rise along with government approvals of fracking projects, open-casket funerals are avoided at all cost, failed genetic experiments wreak havoc as they roam the countryside, and East Hearthian-made cars tend to catch fire in people's driveways. Crime is moderate. East Hearth's national animal is the Dog, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

East Hearth is ranked 90,737^th in the world and 176^th in Confederation of Corrupt Dictators for Largest Mining Sector, scoring 2,803.1 on the Blue Sky Asbestos Index.