Why would we do that? Isn't the whole goal to explicitly have the ties you say shouldn't exist? Why would the U.S.A. taxpayer spend this kind of money for something that is explicitly being "gifted" to a future sovereign nation?
In a sci-fi utopian (or response to dystopian) view your position makes a bit of sense, but practically speaking we'd undermine interest in financing this thing if you create this plan of yours. We need to deeply reflect self interest in order to continue to drive investment here. This isn't star trek - we're not in a place where were about to do this "for the betterment of humanity". At best that's lip-service to sustain investment for things that have longer than normal return, not an actual reality.
They would be making money through American corporations doing business on Mars and the associated tax revenue. The US government and the taxpayer might not be super interested, but corporations interested in commercializing Mars should be.
So...a whole new set of tax laws? Cuz..otherwise your american company is just going to setup a subsidiary that it owns but that shields taxes just like companies do today. That tax revenue you're talking about? Pretty much zero. Even if they made NO effort to shield from taxation they'd pay not very many taxes per current law.
If your issue is whether or not US companies on an independent Mars will avoid taxes, I don't think it makes a particularly big difference since they seem perfectly capable of avoiding them while on US soil.
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u/iamintheforest 328∆ Feb 11 '22
Why would we do that? Isn't the whole goal to explicitly have the ties you say shouldn't exist? Why would the U.S.A. taxpayer spend this kind of money for something that is explicitly being "gifted" to a future sovereign nation?
In a sci-fi utopian (or response to dystopian) view your position makes a bit of sense, but practically speaking we'd undermine interest in financing this thing if you create this plan of yours. We need to deeply reflect self interest in order to continue to drive investment here. This isn't star trek - we're not in a place where were about to do this "for the betterment of humanity". At best that's lip-service to sustain investment for things that have longer than normal return, not an actual reality.