But is there money to be made on Mars (that could not be made with robots)? Also, I suspect that the people who are currently being persecuted (e.g. Uyghurs in China) won't be in a position to leave Earth any time soon (e.g. in the next 100 years).
Still, even if both things end up happening, this is still not the same as having Mars as a plan B for Earth.
> Also, I suspect that the people who are currently being persecuted (e.g. Uyghurs in China) won't be in a position to leave Earth any time soon (e.g. in the next 100 years).
I think you again need to look to the example of the New World. The Pilgrims were not persecuted like the Uyghurs. They were relatively well off English folk living in the Netherlands who felt that their laws were overly restrictive and prevented the free practice of their religion.
Thus, groups highly likely to colonize Mars would be traditionalist Catholics, evangelical Christians, and maybe some new age movements. These feel like the current system is persecuting them, but still have enough werewithal and freedom to be able to choose to move. That, and their respective philosophies encourage exploration. It is highly unlikely that any group that decided to move because of persecution would be a racial or ethnic one.
But is there money to be made on Mars (that could not be made with robots)? Also, I suspect that the people who are currently being persecuted (e.g. Uyghurs in China) won't be in a position to leave Earth any time soon (e.g. in the next 100 years).
Still, even if both things end up happening, this is still not the same as having Mars as a plan B for Earth.