The Belt as Industrial System: Psyche, the Shipyard, and the Two-Node Civilisation
Summary There is a recurring failure mode in resource extraction: the place with the raw material ships it somewhere else for processing, captures the low-margin end of the value chain, and watches the high-margin end — fabrication, manufacturing, finished goods — accumulate elsewhere. The extractive colony feeds the industrial power. The arrangement persists because the industrial power got there first and built the infrastructure, and the resource colony never did. ...