>The answer has to do with seeking the tremendous advantages of
>monopolies and the security of outright theft. The over accumulation
>of capital has to find investments and those are best secured and have
>the maximal likehood of profit increases within tightly controlled
>environments like capturing of whole swathes of a subjugated
>earth, its people, and its societies through a complex set of
>repressive political, financial, production, and military
>arrangements. In other words an Empire.
The highest rates of return on foreign investment are found in rich countries, not the most brutally subjugated ones.
And how does China fit into this model? It's everyone's favorite low-wage production site now, but China is anything but subjugated.
Doug