The Republic of Herbert Island is a colossal, efficient nation, ruled by Herbert Winstanley with a fair hand, and renowned for its digital currency, sprawling nuclear power plants, and irreverence towards religion. The compassionate, democratic population of 7.402 billion Herbert Islandians 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 large government juggles the competing demands of Education, Healthcare, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Moribund. The average income tax rate is 90.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Herbert Islandian economy, worth a remarkable 1,105 trillion Gummibearshums a year, is quite specialized and led by the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism, Book Publishing, and Retail. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 149,348 Gummibearshums, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Social media sites prompt users to send birthday greetings to unresponsive nonagenarians, political candidates who don't release their birth certificates are presumed to have been born in Maxtopia, teenagers claim that morning paper rounds are performance art, and there has been a series of riots between local cannibals and health food advocates. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Herbert Island's national animal is the Aardvark, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Herbert Island is ranked 151,559^th in the world and 5,527^th in the South Pacific for Largest Manufacturing Sector, scoring 5,229.29 on the Gooback-Jerbs Productivity Index.