could also be plain totalitarianism
Flower
The US denied its ship had been hit.
About the same vibe as this one:

That's how subsistence farmers were dragged into the market economy. Colonists liked doing that.
But this was also done in the past for military campaigns. Provisioning an army is hard work. It's easier if soldiers can buy stuff with gold along the way and the king demanding the gold back from the population. It's the more realistic way currency use formed instead of the "suppose we want to barter" story. Villagers not going along with the program got torched.
Yeah, it usually means overstaffed with too expensive workers.
They assume AI is only to get much better and will be able to replace higher expertise levels every year until everybody developer is replaced.
It's the usual argument I guess.
EU: we'll do our own defense
USA: about time! Lazy bums!
EU: with our own weapons and we'll diversify trade for less risk
USA: how dare you! Our industry!
That means they'll gerrymander that 40% to the top, block votes from as many as they can from the 60% and ICE the people that would decrease that 40% even a bit.
If you call into ATC they can give you your exact coordinates and ground speed.
Yeah, this just calls for the SR71 ground speed check story
Just one more thing losing contact with reality.