Imperialism now operates on pure surplus that rich countries can afford to lose.

Evidence

Billions of dollars have been spent in political and economic wastelands where corruption and incompetence have caused them to disappear before anything productive could be started, and this money is no longer the “superfluous” capital that could not be invested productively and profitably in the home country but the weird outgrowth of sheer abundance that the rich countries, the haves as against the have-nots, can afford to lose. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 29

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes the classic ‘superfluous capital’ driver of imperialism from the new ‘sheer abundance’ surplus that underwrites aid-based dominion.