QUOTE (hermit @ Dec 23 2008, 10:03 AM)
It's called an investment.
Right, but this would be a horrible one.
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Also, who gave a damn about Aztech's treatment of Yucatan?
A lot of people, actually. The forces Aztechnology had there (ergo not other places) were pretty much directly responsible for them loosing Denver and getting beat to L.A. by Pueblo. Even if only a few groups really pulled for the locals, LOTS of groups funnelled arms/training/etc to screw with Aztech. If Aztech commits militarily to Asamondo, they'll have another Yucatan on their hands except it's MUCH farther away and therefore more expensive.
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Noone would care if they laid waste to Asamondo and took the place over. The neighbouring zones/countries would likely applause, though. And maybe be a lot more favourable towards Aztech in the future. Because, y'know, Africans aren't more keen on being eaten than other people.
Maybe. But Aztech can get whatever they want in those areas anyway. It's not like those places are big customers or anything.
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Since SR corps build arcologies en masse in places like the SOX, I really see no problem there.
What major en masse corp arcologies are in the SOX? Corp acologies are in safe, well-controlled environments. There might be research bases in other places like the SOX, but arcologies?
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And as for worker morale ... people work for Aztech and are happy. People in the SR world are apparently easily satisfied.
Aztech can probably find people to work for them in a former Asamondo, but happy? Aztech workers are happy? Would you be happy to be sent to open a grocery store in, say, Somalia after you military just came in a attempted a genocide on the country? There's no way they could have even cleaned up all the bodies. You'd be operating in some really BAD conditions and I bet you'd want some extra pay to do that.
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Also, HMHVV isn't going to linger around for too long, especially if you make good use of FAB III to take care of it and those nasty critters Africa's jungles hold. Don't tell me that wouldn't be Aztech standard MO.
I don't know how long it lingers. But it's not like you're going to kill every single solitary ghoul around. The ghouls would wage a guerrilla campaign. There will be ghouls and they will possibly migrate elsewhere (if they're smart enough) or, if not, they'll stick around like cunning animals, feed off the poor, underpaid, local workforce that has just been put into place (and doesn't know the area) and spread their infection. Putting up tons of security just isn't cost-effective and, hey, to Aztechnology life is cheap if we're talking about grunt workers in the tin-mines, so who cares.
If you use tons of FAB III you'll destroy the ghouls, yes, but you'll also just kill huge amounts of wildlife, destroy the ecosystem, get the rest of the world after you for releasing FAB III into an uncontrolled environement where it can spread with possibly no limits (prevailing winds... worldwide shipping port nearby... little control of the environment...), and possibly create a bunch of mana-warps. That's not even a realistic option any group could use except Winternight or some cult like that.
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Because it's cheaper in the long run, and SR megacorps DO plan for the long run, because otherwise they'd have gone the way of Leman Bros' before the original setting kicked off?
Not cheaper in the long run. To set up a comparison - think about how much it cost per month, for example, the U.S. to fight a war in Iraq (at the beginning of operations, pre-insurgency/surge/etc). A lot. Then think about how much it costs for companies in the U.S. to get, say, diamonds from Liberia. Why would the U.S. invade Liberia, slaughter the population (say there's a quasi-legit excuse for that), and set up an entire infrastructure in a place that has very very little in the way of any modern infrastructure (way way worse than Afghanistan, even) and put people in place to run it in order to set up diamond mines when they can pay the people already there a pittance for the diamonds they want (conveniently ignoring the money is being used for bad ends)? It just doesn't make sense.
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Containment and elimination are far more sensible approaches to SR's lingering zombie holocaust problems. What good does it do you to dump the Infected someplace where they can arm and organise themselves and eventually will come back to get you, huh?
Elimination is a great idea theoretically, yeah, but think about how long the world has been attempting to eliminate other major diseases - say malaria, for example. Not so much sucess, really. How will eliminating HMHVV be easier? Since many countries in SR have shown a penchant for just walling up problem areas and leaving them alone as long as they don't bother anyone too much, why wouldn't that happen with ghouls in Africa?