Originally posted by veltyen:
Perhaps I should put it another way. The balanced driver for major naval projects is not money. Time, output, manpower, combat effectiveness all come before money. Money is just an abstract placeholder for resources, and not a terribly good one at that. 2 teams of engineers, one with high morale and one with low morale paid the same have different outputs. The money involved is equal, the output certainly isn't.
That's a productivity question. Whether productivity is high or low is separate from the idea that money isn't required.
It's possible to theorize zero-money economic systems. The Imperium (without imposing radical changes) isn't one of them.
Originally posted by veltyen:
If the choice is work for no money, or have all shareholders in your company publicly executed most companies will choose the safer path.
I think it's pretty obvious that if the government of the Imperium started treating the Megacorporations this way, that it would be a major civil war. The Megacorporations would
not sit still. They each have private overt armies, including substantial and very experienced covert armies.
They couldn't beat the IN in outright war, but the behind the scenes war, that would be a different story. The Megacorporations have employees, in place,
everywhere, including civilian (Megacorporate) technical consultants that will be on board many warships (as they are on some of today's warships). Yes, that would be a mess for the IN, with its warships coming to a halt on weird inexplicable technical problems.
Originally posted by veltyen:
If the navy needs your company to build widget X, and you refuse, your company no longer has any interstellar trade.
If the government of the Imperium tried to exert its will in this manner upon an actual Megacorporation, it would be, as I mentioned, war. The others would unite (for the duration of the crisis) in fear of having the same thing happen to them.
Since the vast majority of wealth in the Imperium flows through the great Megacorporations, they are not a group that can lightly be bullied.
Originally posted by veltyen:
The price the navy pays will be determined by the navy, while there may be some negotiation attempting to price gouge the imperium may be looked at as treason.
I don't see most of the processes working that way.
Originally posted by veltyen:
I don't believe that even MegaCorps are allowed Anti-Matter devices. This leaves the Navy with a certain negotiation advantage.
In the straight Imperium, there is no TL-16, which is the anti-matter weapons stage. I'm not sure why they enter the discussion. There is nothing indicating the Imperium operates in this manner. The IN does not hold the great Megacorporations at the point of a gun. The heads of the Megacorporations are nobles themselves, Counts and Dukes (without "clusters" or subsectors, to be certain, but high ranking nobles nonetheless), most likely. They hobnob with the Emperor. If the IN got nasty, the Emperor would hear about it. Of course, the reverse is true, as the Megacorporations can't expect to cheat the IN, otherwise the Emperor hears about it. It's a complicated balancing act where all sides are attempting a wild combination of simultaneously pleasing and cheating each other as much as they can to achieve their own private objectives.
Originally posted by veltyen:
Subversion on the other hand is a certain possibilty. Maybe not on the same scale as the US military industrial complex. It really does depend, IMTU treason has a certain "extreme prejudice" punishment which minimises the kickback possibilities.
True. However, we have also seen what happens, historically, in the OTU, to Emperors who perceive everyone to be a threat and start executing people left and right. They themselves are disposed of.
Originally posted by veltyen:
Don't get me wrong, the Navy will normally try to pay a fair price for the equipment it procures, for the exact reason mentioned above, morale. But the navies goal is the protection of the imperium, anyone getting in the way is going to be chewed up by the gears. Refusing to accomodate the Navies wishes is a terminal kind of action.
Well, at least IMTU, the IN is not so all powerful. The Megacorporations have bigger political muscle. If the IN was having real problems with a Megacorporation, they would go to the Emperor, and the intervention would go directly and privately through the top officers of the Megacorporation. It would be unlikely to come to public light.
However, it's extremely unlikely, as well, that individual budgetary negotiations would ever make it in front of the Imperium. The High Command might try their own negotiations with regional Megacorporate management (they're almost
all going to members of the nobility at those elevated positions, and so they're members of the same exclusive club, even if they aren't necessarily friends). IMTU, it may well come down to who has the most political muscle in the individual circumstance. It will not always be the IN.