Let's say one day we populate Mars and build a civilization. Where do we start?
I think about this a lot actually, and all I really have to say to my wife is “Mars” and she knows what’s coming.
Because it is a thought-experiment that helps us get out of our base reality and throw off everything we take for granted about this life here on earth, and see it with fresh eyes.
Fresh eyes are a gift far more valuable to me than all the thoughts buried in the canon of The Encyclopedia Britannica.
But back to the Mars mission: let’s start with the basics.
When it comes to people's purpose: what do we do on Mars?
Do we work?
I would say yes, because without work we have no way of surviving, unless we suck resources from earth and its economy.
So to be independent, we need an economy, a system of exchanging goods and services. Without that, we are all going to be homesteaders with very low quality of life.
Without an economy, I am a farmer, a doctor, a teacher, a blacksmith, a carpenter, a priest—just to name a few duties.
An economy is built when people specialize—it’s called the division of labor—and when that happens, something magical occurs. When we limit our scope, our quality of life increases.
If I can make enough money farming to pay you to handle all of my finances, teaching my kids, building my house and buggy and barn, then by golly I’m going to do it.
I need to specialize in a work that you find valuable and are willing to pay me to do. Let’s say I don’t really know as much about farming as you do, so let's say instead I let you do the farming and open a laundromat to wash all that Mars dirt out of your clothes.
You grow the food, and I pay you for it, and I keep you clean, and you pay me for it.
You and I together are now a sustainable unit. At least on paper.
Imagine building out a whole economy where all our needs are met by each other, and we exchange money back and forth for that privilege.
In this light, commerce, and the exchange of goods and services, is a profound and tremendous gift, a way toward a better civilization.
Alone, I would barely survive, spending all my time farming, building, repairing, and squeaking by, all alone in my ingenuity.
Now imagine we share a neighbor down the dirt-road street who doesn’t like people and thinks of himself as Mr. Independent. He decides to build his own house and wash his own clothes and farm his own food, to keep from paying you and me.
That's fine, and he has the right to do that, but you and I both know he's missing out. He could be benefiting from the magic of the economy, eating better food, having more time with family, and enjoying the fine craftsmanship that comes from his neighbors who have specialized.
It's hard not to see that guy as selfish.
But those people exist, even today.
They see a salesman and run the other direction; they try to hoard resources away from their neighbors instead of sharing them with their local economy.
There are people out there who see companies as out to get them—Ford is out to get your money, that’s all they care about!
And while Ford is a for-profit company and absolutely wants your money, they are also giving you an insane product you can’t make by yourself.
How long do you think it would take you to build an F-150?
You’re in the driver’s seat: but you have to pay to play.
My point is this: commerce is a means of grace and a means of flourishing and making life more livable.
It can be a means of great good.
I can’t tell you how many hotels I’ve stayed in that overlook the beauty of creation and accentuate my experience on this planet, and all I had to do was pay them a little to stay there one night. I didn’t even build the air conditioners I so enjoyed!
How long would it take us to build this good world we have here all over again on Mars?
Longer than you or I have to live, I guarantee you that.
That’s something to think about.
“It is the great multiplication of the productions of all the different arts, in consequence of the division of labour, which occasions, in a well-governed society, that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people.” ~Adam Smith