From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Thu Dec 12 2002 - 12:00:23 MST
On Thu, Dec 12, 2002 at 10:02:49AM -0800, Charles Hixson wrote:
> Hypothesis:
> It's because the US is primarily a commercial empire, and only
> secondarily a military one. The commercial parts of the US empire
> have already begun sweeping in the rest of the world. (See the WTO,
> etc. Also McDonalds.)
>
> And there's just not that much money in destroying someone.
> Especially when you can buy them, and turn a profit. Also, since this
> commercial group is a large oligarchy, foreign firms are welcome to
> join, provided they play by the rules.
You might find the following paper interesting:
http://www.econ.brown.edu/2002/wp2002-15.pdf
"Annexation or Conquest? The Economics of Empire Building" by
Herschel I. Grossman and Juan Mendoza. A game theoretical analysis
of expanding an empire in an optimal way.
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