Well, if we're building an airport, why not just have robots build it? By your same logic, it would be so much cheaper! No healthcare or wages or food or unions

Well, if we're building an airport, why not just have robots build it? By your same logic, it would be so much cheaper! No healthcare or wages or food or unions to deal with! Plus, no chance of accidental death that would make the public feel sad about that airport! You see the fallacy in this argument yes? You're only looking at pure operating cost. Saying robots are cheaper ignores so many other factors like the insane amount of capital it would take to develop robots that could be anywhere close to as productive as a human. In addition, everything past Earth orbit is far enough away that Earth cannot make real-time decisions for you. Robots cannot make split second decisions to save themselves. Being able to think is extremely valuable is extreme environments. Plus, this argument just plain ignores the entire point of space travel. We must permanently populate other planets or we will become extinct. Full Stop. A bunch of robots colonizing the Galaxy cannot carry with them the light of consciousness.