SpaceX, Billionaires and the Escape Plan: Who Stays on the Burning Planet?

An anthropological look at rockets, colonization, and why we refuse to fix the world we already live in

Introduction

Adrenaline in Orbit, Hunger on Earth

Space has always fascinated us. From the first man on the Moon to rovers on Mars, crossing the void feels like the ultimate symbol of human genius and courage.

Today, private companies like SpaceX lead that charge. Reusable rockets, Starship, talk of a city on Mars – it sounds like science fiction finally made real.

But as an anthropologist and Caribbean observer of power, I have to ask a more uncomfortable question:

Why can billionaires spend tens of billions to colonize other planets, but cannot come together to spend a fraction of that to ensure food, clean water and basic medicine for everyone on this one?

And a darker question follows:

Once they have squeezed this planet dry, is the plan simply to get on a rocket – and leave the rest of us here?

SpaceX is not just “cool tech.” It is a window into how a tiny elite is planning for a future where they can leave, and you cannot. We need to look at that with clear eyes.

FACT: A single 30‑second Super Bowl ad can cost several million US dollars. A Mars‑class rocket program runs into tens of billions. Meanwhile, according to UN estimates, a fraction of global military and luxury spending could eradicate extreme hunger and provide basic water and sanitation worldwide.

 Section 1: What SpaceX Really Is
Perspective

SpaceX: Engineering Genius or Escape Vehicle for the Few?

Technically, SpaceX is extraordinary:

• Reusable rockets (Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy) that land themselves,
• Dragon capsules ferrying cargo and crew to the ISS,
• Starship – a fully reusable system designed for Moon and Mars missions.

The official mission is simple and seductive:

“Make life multi‑planetary.”

On paper, that sounds noble. From an anthropological angle, it raises a much deeper issue:

Who exactly is included in “life” when we say “make life multi‑planetary”? Is that “humanity” – or a pre‑selected class of the wealthy and useful?

Because right now, while rockets rise, millions still:

• go to bed hungry,
• drink polluted water,
• live one illness away from disaster,
• and watch their land and resources extracted for someone else’s profit.

Section 2: What We Could Do with Those Billions 
Earth First

The Planet We Already Have vs. the Planet We Want to Escape To

Let’s be concrete for a moment.

The money poured into:

• rocket development,
• private space stations,
• space tourism and Mars prototypes

could easily:

• fund clean water systems in the most vulnerable regions,
• stabilize food programs for the chronically hungry,
• finance community clinics and basic medicines,
• slow down the most reckless extraction of ores and fossil fuels.

We are not talking about vague dreams. We are talking about:

Simple, solvable problems that remain unsolved not because we lack money, not because we lack the technology, not because we lack resources, but because we lack moral priority.

From an ethical perspective, the situation looks like this:

• The same civilization that cannot organize clean drinking water for all,
• is building custom starships for a tiny minority.

That is not “progress.” That is a distorted value system on display.

FACT: Various UN and development estimates suggest that ending extreme hunger and providing basic water and sanitation would cost in the low hundreds of billions of dollars – less than what global consumers spend on luxury goods annually, and comparable to large single-country military budgets.

Section 3: The Anthropological Question – Who Leaves, Who Stays? 
Anthropology

If Space Becomes a New Continent, Who Gets the Land?

When Europeans “discovered” the Americas, they called it exploration. For the people already living there, it was invasion, extraction, and replacement.

Today, when billionaires talk about “colonizing Mars,” the language is frighteningly familiar:

• “new frontiers,”
• “empty land,”
• “resources,”
• “backup for humanity.”

But again: which humanity are we talking about?

The same groups who already own the ports, the clouds, the data, the media, and the patents on Earth will quite naturally claim the launch seats to Mars.

In that scenario:

• The rich and their chosen experts get the lifeboat,
• The exploited planet is left behind,
• The majority becomes a kind of “background casualty” of history.

As an anthropologist, I see a pattern:

When a system refuses to reform itself to care for the many, it starts building exits for the few.

Section 4: The Story We Are Being Sold 
Narratives

The PR of Progress: Rockets as Distraction

The media story around SpaceX and similar projects is crafted carefully:

• “Humanity reaching for the stars,”
• “Inspiring the next generation,”
• “Scientific breakthroughs that will help us all.”

Some of that is genuinely true: rocket reusability, satellite constellations, and scientific platforms do create knowledge and tools.

But the narrative also functions as a powerful distraction:

While we watch launch live‑streams and cheer landings, the basic failures of our civilization – hunger, poisoned water, obscene inequality – remain unsolved on purpose.

Ask yourself:

• Why does “innovation” rarely mean food justice, clean water, or debt relief?
• Why is “disruption” always somewhere far away from the banking system and the ownership of land and infrastructure?
• Why is a billionaire investing in a Mars colony called a visionary, but a government feeding its poor is called “irresponsible” or “socialist”?

The stories we celebrate reveal what we truly worship. Right now, we worship technological spectacle more than we honor human dignity.

Section 5: A More Sinister Possibility 
The Kicker

Is This About Saving Humanity – or Saving Themselves?

Let’s return to the “intriguing thought” I started with:

Could it be that once they have exploited this planet to death, the plan is simply to jump on a ship and go live on Mars – and to hell with the rest of us?

Is that a conspiracy theory? It doesn’t have to be a secret plot in a dark room. It is enough that:

• The same people who profit from extraction and inequality on Earth,
• are investing heavily in off‑world escape routes,
• while refusing serious structural reforms that would make Earth livable for all.

In anthropology, we do not need to guess intentions. We watch patterns:

• Where does the money flow?
• Whose lives get protected?
• Whose suffering is accepted as “collateral damage”?

By that measure, it is not paranoid to say:

Our civilization is building lifeboats for the very top, while asking everyone else to clap and call it “progress”.

FACT: The wealth gap between the global billionaire class and the rest of humanity keeps widening. At the same time, climate risk, food insecurity, and displacement are rising fastest among those with the least chance of ever leaving Earth.

Conclusion

We Don’t Need to Hate Rockets – We Need to Demand Justice

This is not an argument against science or against rockets. It is an argument against amnesia.

Before we celebrate “making life multi‑planetary,” we must:

• Ask why we refuse to make this planet truly livable for all,
• Demand that the same genius applied to rockets be applied to water, food, and fair economics,
• Insist that any talk of “humanity’s future” starts with the most vulnerable humans now.

So next time you see a rocket launch, do two things:

• Allow yourself to feel the wonder – we are capable of amazing things.
• Then ask, quietly but firmly:

  “Who is this really for? And who is being left behind?”

If enough of us ask that question – in the Caribbean, in Africa, in the global South and North – we might still have time to demand a future where:

No one needs a rocket to escape, because we finally chose to fix the ground beneath our feet.

#SpaceX #Billionaires #MarsColonization #Anthropology #GlobalInequality #ClimateJustice #FixEarthFirst