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On Sat, 5/9/15, Richard Aiken <raikenclw@gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] Finding transport
 To: tml@simplelists.com
 Date: Saturday, May 9, 2015, 12:27 AM

 On Fri, May 8, 2015 at
 11:34 AM, Bruce  Johnson <johnson@pharmacy.arizona.edu>
 wrote:
 And
 how well do that work out for him? He got sucked into russia
 with an over-extended supply line, and limited resources
 against an entrenched opponent with easy access to
 replenishment, and near parity in TL (up to parity by the
 turning point of the war).

 I’d say the German invasion of Russia rather proves my
 point.

 I'm not sure what your point
 was.
 But the point I
 was responding to was Dave's point that a lack of
 economic resources is the usual motivation for
 invasion.
 But after
 factoring in all incidental costs (such as maintaining a
 permanent garrison or the reputation one gets after
 committing the genocide necessary to avoid said garrison),
 trading for whatever it is always cheaper than invading to
 "simply" take it 
 So the economic reasons behind
 invasions are really psychological reasons: taking direct
 control of resources is perceived as intangible variable
 which justifies the vastly higher cost of invasion over
 trade.
 [Phil's two
 replies above agree with this.]
 The above being true, then it
 doesn't matter whether the OTU possesses relatively
 scarce basic resources or relatively plentiful ones. In
 either case, it's the intangible (and thus
 psychological) variable which matters, not objective
 reality.

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I've just been browsing thru 'Pocket Empires' & it mentions that as a result of Cleon's coup/usurpation/whatever  the Zhunastu Corp now had an effective monopoly on any & all gov contracts & thus effectively began squeezing out all competitors.
Some of which actually (a scenario is included) went off into the hinterlands to try to duplicate his feat for themselves. It occurs to me there were probably any number of alternative methods to secure effective economic hegemony, some of which may have even been more efficient. However choosing a different tack wouldn't have allowed Cleon to don the imperial mantle of 'greatness' & achieve a sort of immortality... very ego-appealing, no?

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