'Red' Mars?

This is the most difficult issue for me, mainly because some of what I have to say goes against the grain of my core beliefs. I am a proponent of capitalism through and through. And a believer in free market economics, free enterprise and the crucial role of the entrepreneur. As I have said, I think the settlement of Mars should be private sector led and based on sound commercial planning. I don't want to see a 'Red' Mars in the political sense. I have no doubt that China will be headed to Mars sometime in the next 20 years. And as long as China is led by an oligarchical communist party and lacks true democracy, I want the free world to be well ahead of them in colonising Mars. Is that because I have any antipathy towards the Chinese? Of course not, and I laud China's recent accomplishments in space. But I want to see a flourishing Free Mars, not a culture of state direction and censored debate.

But this is where it gets difficult. We can get to Mars using the power of free markets and the private sector, but, in its initial phases, I doubt the practicality of anything less than community enterprise and a commonwealth economy working within the colony itself. When America was settled, a colonist's labour and enterprise could wrest a living and subsequently wealth by the work of his own hands and the smartness of his own brain. When a land is bountiful, with abundant water, trees for building in wood, and fertile soil to grow crops; then the energy of the individual can be let loose to prosper freely and make its own way in a new world. Ultimately, individuals discover sources of mineral wealth as well and an economy can take off explosively.

But Mars is not like that. It is a cold, dead place. Not bountiful but forbidding. On the far margins of habitability even with the benefits of modern technology. It will be a long time before advances in propulsion and reductions in transport costs offer anyone a real prospect of making significant profit from work on the martian surface. When Mallory was asked why try to climb Everest, he answered famously, 'Because its there'. Colonists of Mars can expect for many years to work hard just to make a living. 'Because its there' will be their main motivation for a long time; the spirit of the pioneer, convinced of the future, and striving with all human ingenuity and pride to make it work. They will need to draw solace from the clean fresh lines of the high desert landscape and its spectacular sunsets; they will have none of the softer beauties of an abundant Earth to inspire them.

So back to free enterprise versus commonwealth in the first years of martian settlement. A wide range of skills will be needed in an infant colony. Each will be quite as important for survival as the other. A doctor will be no more vital than a nurse, a farmer no more than a construction worker, an artisan no more than a technician. And so on. Each of these will share in the building of Mars. There will be no surplus in the early years. The entrepreneurs who build the rockets to take humans to Mars will have the right to break even and take a profit through selling tickets to Mars and aiming towards a target like Elon Musk's 80,000 inhabitants. The colonists will be facing decades of hard effort to survive and thrive. If everything is not plowed back into the communal needs of the colony it simply will not succeed. In effect, such a commonwealth will need to take all that is produced and apply it to common necessities. That is just the way it must be. It will take a generation at least before true free enterprise can be introduced to Mars. Personal rather than communal profit will just have to wait.

As I say, I do not like this thought, it edges far too close to socialism or even communism for my liking. That is why I prefer to call it commonwealth or community enterprise. Mars must be free. And even a necessary era of purely communal wealth creation should be as short lived as possible. If free enterprise does not take hold, the future for Mars colonists could ultimately be as bleak as life in the socialist economies which freedom on Earth has largely consigned to the ash can of history.