If things get really bad, could Mars be the escape hatch for the 1 percent?

[csziggy]

18. Colonization on the same model as Roanoke and Jamestown?

Where many of the wealthy adventurers had no idea how to do the basic chores required for survival and wanted to spend their time looking for gold? The death rate for Jamestown was horrific in the first few years - 80% of the colonists died in 1609-1610. The later shipments of people included lower class workers and indentured Africans (who by 1640 were declared slaves). Without those infusions of people who actually knew how to farm and build, Jamestown would have been a failure just like Roanoke.

More likely is that a form of indenture will be instituted in which people with the needed skills to build a colony will be underwritten by the wealthy and by corporations - a similar model existed for the later, more Northern English colonies. In those, wealthy colonists bought in and became freemen while others had their passage paid for by sponsors, either the wealthy who wanted servants or the colony corporations to bring in needed trades such as metal and glass workers.

This will ensure that the class structure will be maintained and that the wealthy can continue to live their privileged lifestyles while bringing in the required workers to create the infrastructure necessary to support life.

In other words, nothing will change other than the location and required technology.