Thank you. It’s not like I completely thought of it myself. I mostly got it from David Harveys lectures/podcast. Yes, maybe I am underestimating it. It could be a better way to sink value than war, so it might happen. But there’s no consumer market in space. No one to sell to who’s not already part of capitalist circulation like India was during the industrialization. There’s no one in space who can buy the surplus product. War has the double benefit of destroying value (like space projects) and opening up markets on top of it (for selling surplus and for unequal exchange). Space exploration is also very capital intensive and has low actual human labor involved. Since all profit comes from human labor, it would drive down profit rates further. For example, robots successfully mining asteroids would make one single company rich for a time and lower profits for many companies, as prices drop.
Historically, funding for space related ventures has mostly been an offshoot of funding for war, with lots of dual use technologies. I don’t really see that relationship reversing soon. It’s not just rockets. For example, intelligence agencies have discarded several surplus telescopes for spy satellites with capabilities that surpass Hubble. They have more advanced ones in operation.
When you open a bakery, who do you sell the bread to? To the people in the city. That’s how you make money.
When you build rockets that can reach Mars, who do you sell to? And for what reason would anybody buy that product?
I believe this is where religion comes in. Ironically, religion (despite its very antique air about it) can aid capitalism to create a narrative around “human destiny is to reach for the stars” and “that was god’s plan for us all along” to nourish public sentiment towards spaceflight. This in turn creates a movement that is independent from short-term return-on-investments. Space settlements don’t have to return value as long as you can convince the public that you’re fulfilling the human destiny to spread throughout the cosmos that way.
Thank you. It’s not like I completely thought of it myself. I mostly got it from David Harveys lectures/podcast. Yes, maybe I am underestimating it. It could be a better way to sink value than war, so it might happen. But there’s no consumer market in space. No one to sell to who’s not already part of capitalist circulation like India was during the industrialization. There’s no one in space who can buy the surplus product. War has the double benefit of destroying value (like space projects) and opening up markets on top of it (for selling surplus and for unequal exchange). Space exploration is also very capital intensive and has low actual human labor involved. Since all profit comes from human labor, it would drive down profit rates further. For example, robots successfully mining asteroids would make one single company rich for a time and lower profits for many companies, as prices drop.
Historically, funding for space related ventures has mostly been an offshoot of funding for war, with lots of dual use technologies. I don’t really see that relationship reversing soon. It’s not just rockets. For example, intelligence agencies have discarded several surplus telescopes for spy satellites with capabilities that surpass Hubble. They have more advanced ones in operation.
The economics of space settlements are tricky.
When you open a bakery, who do you sell the bread to? To the people in the city. That’s how you make money.
When you build rockets that can reach Mars, who do you sell to? And for what reason would anybody buy that product?
I believe this is where religion comes in. Ironically, religion (despite its very antique air about it) can aid capitalism to create a narrative around “human destiny is to reach for the stars” and “that was god’s plan for us all along” to nourish public sentiment towards spaceflight. This in turn creates a movement that is independent from short-term return-on-investments. Space settlements don’t have to return value as long as you can convince the public that you’re fulfilling the human destiny to spread throughout the cosmos that way.