Billionaire Space Race Ushers In Peak Consumerism

Is it the ultimate phallic symbol, or a giant middle finger to all the suckers that will not be able to escape to another planet when this one is done? 

When it comes to the white guy billionaire space race, it could be either one. Or both. 

The shine has come off their image in recent years, and they need some way to show that they really are the saviours of the planet they have been busy destroying.

And they are going to save us with... wait for it... space tourism. 

Now that a few "ordinary" people have been to the edge of space for a few seconds, travel pumpers touting the Ultimate (brief) Adventure are predicting an $8 billion dollar space tourism market by 2030. 

This is the project that the richest men on Earth have chosen to take on. Make commercial space travel a reality, and watch their accounts swell. 

Is it also childish defiance, to flip the bird at the rest of humanity?

"It is my money, and I can do what I want."

Yes, even if it is a wasteful, self-aggrandizing feat of desperation while searching for some reason, even one, to justify unprecedented and dangerous concentrations of personal wealth.

Fitting that they are off-loading to the planet named after the Roman god of war.  It has been an ongoing war - them vs us and the planet. And they are winning. 

To the edge of space, and beyond! 

Upward and onward to the lofty heights of  future robber trillionaires that will live boring lives of austere luxury in the lifeless surroundings of Mars. 

They will sit around a stark plastic table sucking Tang and champagne out of foil packages, wheeling and dealing for whole planets as they reach Peak Consumerism.

If they ever get back, they will see Earth with space weary eyes. It will appear as a miracle, and the paradise that it is. 

Or was, and could be again.