1) Fair enough. You are quite right about this of course, and indeed there was almost a celebration of the diversity in the confederation. At least in theory one can have a confederation where membership is based on universal human rights.

2) Unimproved value is based on the rental value of a block without anything on it; thus the real value as estate agents always tell us is "location, location, location" - the value is very dependent on the surrounding infrastructure (it also includes natural resources intrinsic to the block).

I think it's very fortunate that telecommunications cost are low in proportion to other costs.