Jalpha wrote:Off the cuff:
If you cut me I bleed red. Gold coins do not fall out. What I mean by that is I do not really like capitalism, and an ideal government would be far superior to corporations. However the reality is that an ideal government does not exist and corporations hold much of the real power now.
This aside what private companies have to offer is stability and efficiency. Current governments are too dynamic to sustain the long term vision and action necessary to bridge our migration beyond earth orbit. Parties and leaders change and so does national policy as a result. Companies have much more capacity for long term stability of vision and action. Additionally private companies are motivated by financial profit. There is profit to be made beyond earth orbit. It will take some government support to build up to the point where that profit is accessible. However once that support is able to be withdrawn private companies will be forced to strive for economic efficiency. This philosophy stands in opposition to government funded entities like NASA, which are motivated by the lobbying of their employees. This results in a large proportion of (arguably) squandered resources.
The privatisation of space will be messy. In a lot of ways it will be very messy. It would be better if there was a government to take up the needed role to push us beyond earth orbit. However the reality is that any such government will most probably arise as a result of the privatisation of space, and it will most probably emerge beyond earth orbit.
It is the first steps which are the most difficult.
I will try to answer your other questions in a bit.
This is an adult and well-grounded point of view.
I have to say that it is also, most likely, true at this stage of human development. But, as for me, do not forget that a person is at the helm of any corporation. And not all of these people can be rational enough to look only at profits. Among them, many ideological people are haunted by the very idea of conquering space. Some companies may have even been created in the first place, not for profit as such, but as a resource to achieve the goals of their ambitious leaders. And in this case, we will have a slightly different picture.
Namely: the use of super-profits of large corporations to ensure space exploration in one way or another.
Also, I get the impression that recent events in the world are only pushing humanity to create more and more space companies. At the moment they can be small commercial projects like
https://www.skyrora.com/blog/uk-space-news.
But we do not know the global goal of their creators. Perhaps they want to enslave the entire galaxy)
