Don't Give Up on Space Colonies

Logan Ferree gives up on the idea of private space exploration and colonization:
http://freedomdemocrats.org/node/599

He points to an article http://www.jetpress.org/volume4/space.htm that contains an argument that large scale space projects are not feasible for business and must be undertaken by government. The author claims that exploration and colonization, as in the European conquest of the Americas and the American conquest of the frontier, were heavily subsidized by government. The implication seems to be that these events would not have occurred without government intervention.

I don’t agree at all. That it hasn’t happened yet does not mean that private space exploration will not happen in the future. And that governments intervened to promote colonization in the Americas does not mean that it would not have happened in the absence of such intervention. It might have happened differently, but I reckon it would have happened nonetheless.

In fact, government intervention may have stymied settlement of the Americas. Until the Homestead Act of 1863, the feds claimed ownership of all the lands in the frontier and sold it in large lots to wealthy speculators who held it until it appreciated. This practice kept would be pioneers off the land for decades. Huge stretches of land were given away to the railroads and could be settled only when bought by pioneers. Many colonists came to America because they hoped to be better off economically and to be able to turn their hard work into something for themselves. This was hard to do in the old country. Others came in order to enjoy relative freedom.

I reckon that space will someday be accessible and that some folks may well colonize it for the sake of freedom whether or not it is profitable in the short run. It will also be profitable someday as technology improves and opportunities are found. We just don’t know what these opportunities are yet.

Centrally planned space exploration and colonization is bound to cost way more than it should and to proceed in boneheaded ways. Witness the Space Shuttle program. In the end, governments will claim every bit of space and every planet and planetoid as their own. You'll have to buy land on the moon and pay taxes and fees out the wazoo, and this will just slow down settlement in the long run. Moreover, the taxes that we pay to subsidize centrally planned space exploration will be a drag on the terrestrial economy and will take money from the private sector that might have gone to space based business ventures.

As a kid, I was huge fan of NASA and knew every astronaut's biography and the stats on every rocket by heart. Looking back, though, aside from the entertainment value, I don't reckon we gained much from NASA's activities. If anything, it was a huge propaganda tool, and I sure don't reckon anything that bolstered the legitimacy of the federal government was good for me and mine. The whole moon mission thing, while lots of fun for an eleven and twelve year old boy, was really just a big waste of time and money. If it was so damned important to visit the moon, why hasn't anybody been back for 30 years, especially now that we have computers and such like?

Would humans have walked on the moon by now if the government didn't do it? Probably not. Would I be any worse off today if nobody had yet walked on the moon? I can't say as I would. In any event, I reckon eventually someone would have gone to the moon when it became sensible for them to do so. And they wouldn't have to rob anybody to do it.