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From: Chris Buckley <alan@sabir.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: "Drakon" by S. M. Stirling
Date: 19 Jun 2024 11:58:18 GMT
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On 2024-06-19, The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca> wrote:
> On Tue, 18 Jun 2024 09:47:10 -0700, Robert Woodward
><robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
>
>>No, I meant Americans. The Draka had to run rampant over a larger area 
>>with drastically fewer people than USA did and had in the 19th century.
>>
>>> S. M. Stirling seems to disagree with you about the Domination of 
>>> Africa.  Remember, the Domination was all about the enslavement of every 
>>> other human on Earth for the purposes of the Draka.
>>
>>Since I am utterly unconvinced in the plausibility of the timeline he 
>>offered on how this was done; I don't care about his opinion on the 
>>matter. I am speaking of abrupt un-suspension of willing suspension of 
>>disbelief.
>
> No question I also thought a fair bit of "handwavium" was required to
> set up what turned out to be a pretty good tale.
>
>>> And George Washington was one of the richest people on the planet in the 
>>> middle 1700s.  He was 3% of the economy of the USA.  I suspect that he 
>>> could have raised the funds to exile the Loyalists to any place that he 
>>> wanted to.  He chose Canada for most of them.
>>
>>Where is your source for the extent of George Washington's wealth? I 
>>don't believe it. I don't think he was even 3% of Virgina's economy.
>
> That does seem like an impressive stat which I wouldn't accept without
> a readily available cite.

Indeed.  According to Wikipedia, his estate was equivalent to 0.19% of
the gross domestic product, so he was rich. But that's his wealth, not
his income ("3% of the economy" is a claim of income.)  His wealth was
all in property, he tended to be quite cash-poor, without a high income.

Chris