Abstract
We see two ways to reach the stars. “One is via the intermediation and leadership of the state. The other is through the organization of laissez-faire capitalism.” We conclude this book with a plea for the latter, based on all that came before.
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Notes
- 1.
In the modern era, filling up a blank monitor screen with verbiage.
- 2.
Perhaps how close we are to being fully capable of not only going to Mars but settling there in short order was the greatest surprise. But we came to the realization that other more exotic places lend themselves to colonization as well. We did not start with the idea that settlement of other star systems could happen within our lifetime or even within centuries. And it still might not ever take place. We found no fatal reason to assume it will not occur within a hundred years.
- 3.
A third option, of course, is a ménage à duo wherein both systems morph with one another to form that mongrel: economic fascism . Extrapolating from the present, this might well be the most likely path the United States and the world will take in future, but, as we have argued throughout this book, it is the worst path.
- 4.
The same, unhappily, can be said for almost all who are seeking other official offices including state and local.
- 5.
Clearly, we could name every country on Earth and make the same point.
- 6.
And here even Johnson /Weld fall very short of true libertarianism. Detailing their shortcomings would take us too far afield and would be counter-productive.
- 7.
If private entrepreneurs had reached the Moon in 1969, we strongly expect there would have been much faster and more intensive follow-up than in the event.
- 8.
The Salem witch trials for example, or the communistic agriculture of the first colony, or the warring with natives, or the beginnings of race-based chattel slavery , etc., etc. In the long term, these were mostly overcome because they could not survive in the face of people committed to liberty .
- 9.
Unfortunately, the worldwide reversion to the archaic tyranny of OBushama and their crews seems to be taking a new foothold. We look to libertarian space pioneers to reverse this trend.
- 10.
While your authors decry the very concept of “our country,” we are heartened by such full-scale rejection of the misguided leaders in Europe. But what is so bad about claiming possession of the territory in which we were born? It assumes that everyone homesteaded it and that there can be non-contractual shared proprietorship; it implies that the NIMBYs among us have a veto power over private citizens and their property.
- 11.
Although, of course, there is nothing about their candidacies that can be construed as a rejection of statism. The very opposite is the case. However, at least Trump’s efforts, but not Hillary’s, can be regarded as a rebuff of the establishment in the voters’ minds if not in reality.
- 12.
Except for foreign policy.
Reference
Reagan, Ronald. 1981. [first] Inaugural Address. January 20. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=43130. Accessed 16 Sep 2017.
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Nelson, P.L., Block, W.E. (2018). Conclusion. In: Space Capitalism. Palgrave Studies in Classical Liberalism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74651-7_16
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