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> At Musk’s target price for Mars flights, someone as rich as Bezos could pay for half a million people to go to Mars. That won't matter if SpaceX has a monopo

> At Musk’s target price for Mars flights, someone as rich as Bezos could pay for half a million people to go to Mars. That won't matter if SpaceX has a monopoly on the air they breath, the food they eat and the water they drink. One of the first legal questions they will grapple with is "Does earth law apply on Mars/to Martian citizens? Or is Bezos' contract moot" Look at the history of colonization if you want to see the dynamic of human nature/greed/fiefdoms away from the mother country that is several-month's journey away. The Dutch East India company or the British South Africa Company may be decent case-studies, the only difference being that they could "live off the land" and exploit the natives. There are no natives on Mars, but I can't rule out exploitation.

ben_w 5y ago
> That won't matter if SpaceX has a monopoly on the air they breath, the food they eat and the water they drink. Does the colony itself have to be owned by the transport company? Any of the colony? Including the life support, the factories which make the life support, the mining equipment which digs up the resources these factories use, or anything else? I’m not expecting great things from human nature, but I expect Terran governments to forcefully insist on non-Monopolistic behaviour very quickly, even in the absence of abuse of power, as they’ll be lobbied by both potential investors and military hawks with “isolationism bad” rhetoric.
- sangnoir 5y ago
  > [...]I expect Terran governments to forcefully insist on non-Monopolistic behaviour very quickly All of the Terran governments? I think it would be trivial to play different governments with launch capability against each other, especially if you can mine asteroids (or have technology that's almost there and can promise to supply cooperative governments raw materials in exchange of access to a launch complex and their domestic food market). The promises of riches in the colonies drove competition among colonizing countries, I don't see how it would be any different, it would be trivial to set up subsidiaries in the US/Russia/China/France and see who bites first.

ben_w 5y ago

> That won't matter if SpaceX has a monopoly on the air they breath, the food they eat and the water they drink. Does the colony itself have to be owned by the transport company? Any of the colony? Including the life support, the factories which make the life support, the mining equipment which digs up the resources these factories use, or anything else? I’m not expecting great things from human nature, but I expect Terran governments to forcefully insist on non-Monopolistic behaviour very quickly, even in the absence of abuse of power, as they’ll be lobbied by both potential investors and military hawks with “isolationism bad” rhetoric.

sangnoir 5y ago
> [...]I expect Terran governments to forcefully insist on non-Monopolistic behaviour very quickly All of the Terran governments? I think it would be trivial to play different governments with launch capability against each other, especially if you can mine asteroids (or have technology that's almost there and can promise to supply cooperative governments raw materials in exchange of access to a launch complex and their domestic food market). The promises of riches in the colonies drove competition among colonizing countries, I don't see how it would be any different, it would be trivial to set up subsidiaries in the US/Russia/China/France and see who bites first.