Part 52: An economic report on the Council of Enlightened Matrons
MechaCrash posted:
And perhaps some of our older ships and some spare troop transports can be used to absorb the Council of Matrons. They are clearly unfit to govern if they have such a nice world right there and don't take it. Because it means they're doing something else with all of their industrial output. The question is, what could it be? Either they're putting their money towards something nefarious, which is obviously bad, or they're trying to implement some civic institution that we already do way better. In no case are the Elerian citizens best served by leaving the Council in power. We should try to get them to join us peacefully, of course, but when they inevitably refuse, it's time to land the troops and liberate the shit out of them.
The UNSPS has some speculations on that front. Given the Council primary warship and the fleet of 200 million ground troops they are supporting, UNSPS analysts suspect that severe rationing and shortages causing damages of approximately 20 BC per year to their economy must be in effect. Given their population and economic sophistication, we believe that they are producing about 18 BC in free capital per year from population and foreign trade. Between shortages associated with their oversized military, maintenance of their existing infrastructure, the ongoing tribute to the United Republic, and proof that has been uncovered that the theft of soil enrichment technology was actually a frame job by the Klackon, they must produce somewhere between 25-28 BC in investment total simply to maintain their current position. We estimate that they have 300 million persons engaged in agriculture, and 300 million more involved in heavy industry or research. 100 million of their persons engaged in heavy industry to produce components to make up for the shortages associated with their military are estimated to be able to make up 3 BC of this shortfall. This means that if they have no research sector whatsoever, they can be producing a net revenue of 27 BC. It is the opinion of the UNSPS that the Elerian economy has been entirely stagnated by the support costs for their army.
A sane regime would, of course, demobilise enough of their troop transports to allow the economy to recover, but the Council of Enlightened Matrons has been supporting this level of mobilisation since at least the war with the United Republic. The Council's economic management is functionally Communist at this point in time.