OT: Immigration as opposed to colonization

I've decided to post a sequel to my last one about colonization.  But I
ask 
that, to avoid a sequel to the furor over the last one, people read the 
WHOLE post before responding to any one part.

First of all, let me state once and for all, I'm sorry that my quote on
the 
expense of space travel was not made more specific.  I was NOT referring
to 
the cost of space travel throughout the entire history/future of human
space 
travel.  I was merely referring to the cost of leaving our solar system
for 
the first few times, going out to uninhabited, unfamiliar space, and 
colonizing.

As for the level of technology:  Why must we assume that every
technological 
innovation available in the games was available at the dawn of
exploration 
and colonization? What if we had not yet achieved anti grav technology?
What 
if our first interstellar ships, and they'd be exploration and
colonization 
craft, could only reach say .7 or .8 C?  Only the closest stars would be

attainable, and even they would be long, arduous journeys.  Colonists
would 
know that they were going away for good - live or die, many will never
see 
earth again.

Now let's move forward, to the time AFTER we've colonized, and are now 
dealing with commerce and migration between established systems.  And
let's 
use the same analogy as before.

The Push and the Pull are still there.	As for the resistance, well...
let's 
add a new element, which we'll call Lubrication.  In this case, further 
technological advances and the profits from interstellar commerce are
the 
lubrication which eases the old forms of resistance. space travel is now

cheaper, safer, faster, and easier (happy every one?).

There will be new pushes and pulls, and the old Pushes and pulls will
gain 
strength.  The home world will still have extra people to pawn off,
every 
little separatist group will want there own new homeland.  Some
colonization 
will still go on, and it will be slightly easier for those who attempt
it.  
But most of the moving going on at this point will be to established 
colonies with booming new economies.  The mines and factories on
Barton's 
hell need workers, air conditioning is as common as mine shafts, and the

last venoskunk in the habited areas is in a zoo.

But new forms of resistance will arise.  Xenophobia will be an issue on
some 
colonies.  Colonies and the home world will have decidedly different 
opinions on how the colonies should be run, and who should make that 
decision (Sound familiar?).  More than one colony may be competing on
the 
same planet. (This can be both a force and a resistance.  Both
governments 
are going to want to pump bodies into their colony, and both are going
to 
try to hinder each other.)

Sure, by now, it's fairly easy and cheap for people as poor as the lower

middle class to emigrate, maybe even for the poorer with government
help.  
But once you get there, you're called Streeter, or old dirt, or any
other 
brand new racial/planetial slur that can be invented.  It may be
ppossible 
to strike out on your own for uninhabited parts of the new planet, or
you 
may endure and make your way in the main colony (or you may just die).

Either way, you're an entirely new breed of individual from the first 
settlers who colonized the planet.  You, and they, have a different set
of 
advantages and disadvantages that you may not entirely understand about
each 
other.	But you both share a common drive to make a better life for 
yourself, and you are both very important to the development of the
history 
of humanity in space.

Brian Bilderback
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