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Comment by nicoty | Hacker News Reader

I know I'll sound like a rube but somehow it rubs me the wrong way that the rich and powerful are spending billions trying to establish multiplanetary civilisations despite the fact that we still have plenty of unfixed problems here at home that also deserve attention and resources, if not more so.

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It's not either/or, and you shouldn't reduce things to false dichotomies.

It is though, when you have a fixed budget, even at planetary scales.

Are we still talking about private enterprises, not space agencies?

They are indeed private companies, being subsidised by space agencies.

Are they being subsidized the same way my employer subsidizes my lifestyle?

If I sell steel, grain, boots, or launch services to the government and that gives me profits that I invest into some aspect of my business, I’m not sure that “subsidized by” is the clearest term.

I'm not sure it is an open market that anyone could join. The US government seems to favour domestic supply. Therefore I believe it is a subsidy, yes

Pretty much all of the commercial rocket companies are in America. There is competition between them. In the amount of money that SpaceX gets from the government is quite small compared to its overall operating expenses. They launched 90% of all mass to orbit, most of which is commercial.

The “SpaceX lives on government subsidies” thing is a myth.

It's probably more because of the news than the world. It's not possible for there not to be plenty of unfixed problems. No matter how many problems we solve -- and we've solved a hell of a lot over the past decades or century -- other existing problems will take their place as seeming to be important.

If I'm being too extreme, can you describe a world where you'd consider enough problems have been solved that it's worth spending billions colonizing space?

> that the rich and powerful are spending billions trying to establish multiplanetary civilisations

Citation needed. What are the current projects to make this happen? Starship is a work in progress, but that by itself wont be able to create a colony out of thin air.

I can't believe that pipedream being anything but the largest company town. Who needs Scrip when you have to work for... every vital resource, even air?

Not Rube-ish or rubish at all, IMO. I believe they're more interested in power or recreational drug use than problem-solving. Horses for courses.

It's even worse than that: They're messing up the environment we do have by burning tons of fuel in pursuit of their pipe dreams.

Instead of establishing multiplanetary civilisations, they're burning our single-planetary atmosphere in their hubris and ego.

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