Oops…my mistake. Any comments about my post anyway? Would welcome them.

Tim: If you think you are commenting on Robert Zubrin’s website, you are sorely mistaken. :)

Nothing against Robert, he is just a different Robert Z. He focuses on Mars, I instead write histories of what has been done, with an eye to the future.

“Elon Musk said elsewhere that he thinks that 500K a ticket is the price for being able to send people to Mars privately at a profit. He said that he thinks that there are at least 8000 and probably very many more willing/able to pay. Let assume he is right. How would the colony make money? How about: The Cayman Islands in space?. Mars has one big thing to trade upon, its location beyond all claims of any government as to sovereignty. Meaning it does not have to follow any earth laws. The colony bank of mars (probably a bunch of server/routers/cpu’s in a room) could offer clients tax free interest on deposits (say 5% more for big investors) and total confidentiality. Records not available to any gov agency wanting to know anything about, no legal obligation to do so.”

This is similar I believe to what happen in early America; gold/etc deposited in the bank of NY or some such facility escape the tax man in Europe. In this application said money would likely be transferred electronically; the “bank of mars” would then invest the money back on Earth the same way and pay depositors interest tax free. Since sovereign private colonies on Mars (made up of people renouncing their citizenship from their native country on earth) wouldn’t be bound by earth law/taxes etc. No obligation to report interest paid to depositors to the IRS.

https://www.talk-polywell.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3383&p=73301&hilit=bank+of+mars#p73301