Re: [OT] Bureau of Relocation

>From: Aaron Teske <ateske@HICom.net>
>Reply-To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
>To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
>Subject: Re: [OT] Bureau of Relocation
>Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 18:05:51 -0400
>
>
>Brian, you do have a point with your "it's cheaper to shoot 'em than
move
>'em" comments,

Umm... point ofclarification... htose were Thomas' comments, not mine.

>but assuming there's any kind of "human rights" groups even
>the uber-nations might shy from doing something that blatent.
>
>Assuming none will do that -- or even just using the NAC as an example
--
>the real question is "what does it cost to support this person on Earth
for
>the rest of their life?" and "can they provide us with enough services
to
>pay us back?"	Once the cost of transporting a person to a colony world
>becomes less than the cost to provide them with a basic standard of
living
>for 50+ years, just ship 'em out!

But let's give the good Mr. Barclay his due for a moment.  Assuming that
any 
civil rights protests are ignored, he does have a point, TO a point.  In
the 
short run, it IS a smaller expense to shoot 'em than to ship them...
UNLESS 
you take into consideration that in founding a viable colony, you're 
establishing a source of resources and a new market for your goods.  If
that 
poor sot you just shipped out can turn you a profit, shipping him is no 
longer an expense, but an investment.

>If I'm not mistaken, this is largely the theory on which Pournelle's
>BuReloc was built -- there were not enough jobs for everyone on Earth,
but
>there was a public safety net i.e. welfare, so if the gov'ment wanted
to
>reduce the rolls they had to remove people from the planet, and just
>shooting them wasn't really an option.  Again, push/pull as you've been
>pointing out, but I'd say the cost of a one-way ticket to space is
rather
>less than the cost of supporting what would possibly, or probably, be a
>parasite upon your society for their entire life.  It really depends on
>your view of the future.

Yes, you're right.  The difference being that instead of sending them to

FOUND colonies, BuReloc was sending them to already established
colonies.  
The dynamics of migration between habited worlds will be significantly 
different from the dynamics of initial, pioneering colonization.
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