> Now that you have a base on Mars, how do the inhabitants pay to keep it going? Self sufficiency is too far fetched at this stage so they need regular supply s

> Now that you have a base on Mars, how do the inhabitants pay to keep it going? Self sufficiency is too far fetched at this stage so they need regular supply shipments from Earth, so they need income of Earth currency. Emotional blackmail: “If Congress doesn’t pass the Martian colony funding bill, Americans on Mars will die” National competition: “China’s Mars colony is bigger than ours” Religion: “God wants us to send money to Mars” (that may sound bizarre, but religion motivates humans to spend fortunes on all sorts of strange things, maybe at some point one or more religions will latch on to Mars)