The Hidden Genius of the Star League for the Terran Hegemony

[Drewbacca]

The Star League was founded to address the lack of worlds and resources of the Terran Hegemony as much as it was to spread peace. The fluff tells us that the worlds closest to Terra were the first settled and most of these worlds were as close to habitable as possible, a trend which, for the most part continued as more planets were settled.

We know that an entire branch of the Star League existed for major terraforming projects, The Department of Mega-Engineering.

What hit me about this yesterday is, there are likely a lot of worlds that were passed up in the first exodus from Terra because of the difficulty in making them livable. Now you have an entire department concerned with making worlds habitable. Worlds in the borders of the Hegemony as well as worlds out side of it. All paid for not by the Hegemony, but by the Star League. Did the Camerons manage to get the other house lords to cover the cost of terraforming Hegemony Worlds?

If so, this yet another reason why I love these guys.

[snewsom2997]

Money is fungible, if the Successor States were paying taxes, then that money was used to fund the Star League, including terraforming. I doubt they had a payroll tax for terraforming alone, just income taxes, tarrifs, etc going into a general fund, much like governments today.

In the US, people in NY are paying for roads in S Dakota and Vice Versa. It is all one giant pot of money the source is inconsequential.

[JadedFalcon]

Money is fungible, if the Successor States were paying taxes, then that money was used to fund the Star League, including terraforming. I doubt they had a payroll tax for terraforming alone, just income taxes, tarrifs, etc going into a general fund, much like governments today.

In the US, people in NY are paying for roads in S Dakota and Vice Versa. It is all one giant pot of money the source is inconsequential.

The money might be fungible, but the distribution is not. Some states in the US receive more in federal support than others in relation to the amount they contribute to the federal government. The history of East Pakistan probably another example, though in a more extreme manner.

So the Star League creates a large fund for terraforming, and then the terraforming committee develops models and criteria to determine viable worlds. And then what if the committee shows, that due to travel routes, resources, and  growth projections, many happen to fall within the Terran Hegemony instead of the far-flung periphery? It would make economic sense to develop those worlds that would give back to the Star League. And then there are suitable kickbacks to the other voting members to keep them happy, such as licensing for other TH technology, etc.

But I'm sure the real arguments for this will actually lie in the maps developed by Fanpro & CGL. I'm assuming that there is an atlas in the Reunification war book that can be compared to the one in the 1st SW book.