Comment by XorNot
2 days ago
The Earth of the Expanse has a much higher standard of living then the Earth of today.
This is similar to when people call The Sprawl a dystopia: conditions in it are far better then what most people live in today.
2 days ago
The Earth of the Expanse has a much higher standard of living then the Earth of today.
This is similar to when people call The Sprawl a dystopia: conditions in it are far better then what most people live in today.
That is a 1st world country point of view. Reality is that we don't have an unified, global living standard now, and neither probably by the Expanse point of time.
And if a critical amount of people decided to try luck working on asteroids, it might mean that they didn't had a comfortable way of life down here at the start of the process, and probably by the end of it too.
That's because today's Earth poor are the Outers in the Expanse -- and they're as bad off or worse than today
Ish. We haven't figured out a way to charge people for breathing yet. Existing in general, sure, but air's still free.
we're already trying[0]
and if air quality worsens now that the EPA decided climate change isn't real, it paves the way for more entrepreneurs of this kind ("see? economic growth!!")
[0] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-vitality-air-...
Yes, the economy of Earth in The Expanse is an extractive colonial one not unlike what we have now in the US. It is the logical extrapolation of the current neo-liberal economic model we have now projected into space.
The people of Earth live relatively cushy lives at the expense of the belters. The UN and corporations extract resources from the belt, they overthrow democratically elected leaders to prop up corrupt puppet leaders to do Earth's bidding. All the while, the belters see little of the riches that they're force to extract. Also, unfortunately for the poor of Earth, that wealth also doesn't trickle down to them.
It is a pretty accurate analogy of the current state of affairs of Earth today, but the divide is between the Global North and the Global South.
The people of Global North live relatively cushy lives at the expense of the belters. The governments and corporations of the Global North extract resources from the belt, they overthrow democratically elected leaders to prop up corrupt puppet leaders to do Global North's bidding. All the while, the working class of the Global South see little of the riches that they're force to extract. Also, unfortunately for the poor of Global North, that wealth also doesn't trickle down to them.
The Earth of The Expanse is a warning, not an aspiration.