Is America the first empire where foreign adventures are sustained by internal taxation instead of the other way around?
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I guess Napoleon went through stages of both, with Italy being a very profitable campaign but later ones a lot less so
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Replying to @drethelin
The best possible argument ( taking a page from
@orthonormalist here) is that US doesn't tax the "real" US; US taxes the extra marginal value created in the north america BECAUSE OF the empire. ...so the whole system actually does run at a profit.1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @MorlockP @orthonormalist
I think that argument works for eg, maintaining a global high seas naval presence, not so much for Iraq/Afghanistan
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absolutely re the former. arguably re the latter (I mean, ** I ** am not arguing it, but I can construct an argument that "beating down barbarians who use chemical weapons / fly planes into towers" is either a core part of empire, or an unavoidable side effect of the good part)
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