🚀 go-pugleaf

-From: hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)
-Subject: Re: Question:How Long Until Privately Funded Space Colonization
-Date: 6 Jan 93 14:48:41 GMT
-Organization: Purdue University Statistics Department

->In <3954@key.COM> rburns@key.COM (Randy Burns) writes:
->>What are the current estimates of folks in this newsgroup of how long it 
->>will be until the world starts to see privately funded space colonization?

-Can one
-reasonably expect people to do things when the government can step
-in at any time and say no, or say that what you have done belongs
-to it?  

If it's the principle of eminent domain that you're worried about, then
yes, that could theoretically happen. But the same applies to activities
on the Earth. Does it make sense to refuse to buy a house or a car because
in principle the government could take it away? In practice, most people
don't have their houses or cars taken by the government - the political
cost of doing so is high, serving to act at least as a partial check on
the use of eminent domain. In fact, government seizure of a privately built
lunar base could well be harder than (for instance) taking property on
the Earth for a road or a landfill - not only is it much more "visible",
but the US government hasn't claimed that the moon is part of its territory.

John Roberts
roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov