[Webstral]

Originally Posted by Matt Wiser

Taxation is a power that governments reserve for themselves: hence the successful fight against the airline ticket tax.

This is why it’s important to have a colonial government in place for Luna from the start.

Originally Posted by Matt Wiser

You're more likely to have a "scramble for space" along the lines of the Scramble for Africa back in the 19th Century.

This is exactly what we need to prevent. I think the danger of this sort of thing is so immediate and so great that we need to take active steps to prevent it. The trick is to convince all of the major players that taking steps to prevent the Moon from becoming the latest Africa is really in everybody’s best interests. I’m aware that pulling off such a trick will be quite the accomplishment.

Originally Posted by Matt Wiser

The allure of revenues from space resources is something that national governments will be tempted to get their hands on, for very obvious reasons. And those governments will do whatever it takes to protect their citizens and companies from the depredations of others.

And there is the opportunity. In this day and age capital is too mobile to be tied to national sovereignty. The rise of China and the Cayman Islands should illustrate very well indeed that the investors with the kind of money needed to develop Luna won’t be paying taxes in an industrialized nation. The corporate headquarters will all go someplace where the local government can be bribed into accepting rock bottom rates. The US, Europe, Japan, Russia—they’ll all get next to nothing either because the monied interests have removed themselves or have struck extortionate deals to stay in-country. If lunar developers pay into a common till, everybody gets something rather than almost everybody getting nothing. Again, the trick is to convince all of the major players to accept this reality in favor of the version of reality being peddled by the respective PACs.

Originally Posted by Matt Wiser

But if history is any guide, there will be times when diplomacy fails, and the sword is unsheathed. War in space will happen-it's only a matter of time, and whether it'll be rival companies, rival countries, or a space Navy vs. pirates, it's going to happen.

All too true. Given that the burden of free will still rests with us, I’ll choose to have the fighting be between a space constabulary and outlaws over an international space war or intercorporate space war any day. Space weapons will be astronomically expensive for everyone. The fewer there are, the less money wasted. Corporations shouldn’t want to spend money on space weapons unless they manufacture them for others. Nations shouldn’t want to spend money on them because lawyers are cheaper than astronauts (although not by much), and in any event the companies whose interests said nations will be fighting to protect will be fighting to avoid paying taxes to fund the weapons. Right now… at the beginning… before large-scale investments have been made… before a de facto arrangement supersedes all our better ideas… is the time to create a legal framework that benefits everybody by encouraging development and peaceful competition for the resources and the markets. Right now, there are no sovereignty issues for the Moon. Therefore, no government has any business getting its panties in a bunch over taxation of resources extracted from sources not owned or controlled by that government. Now if the US or Botswana want to tax light helium or platinum entering their sovereign territory, that’s up to the US or Botswana. However, as it stands the US and Botswana have no legal claim on resources in or under the lunar regolith. Those resources belong to humanity, and it is to humanity that remittances must be made. Of course, the aforegoing is nothing more than idealist claptrap once a few billion private dollars get involved. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, now is the time to sort out a legal framework that will benefit everybody and obviate the need for an expensive militarization of space and the kind ruinous competition that make reading about the Wild West and the colonization of Africa so diverting.