Cost Cuts Drive Space Migration

Applying the Roy model to off‑Earth settlement shows that reaching a million voluntary settlers requires roughly a 100x reduction in the cost of living in space; whether immigrants are drawn from the rich or poor on Earth depends on whether space life is a productive economy (pulling high earners) or an insurance/subsidy arrangement (pulling low earners). Policy levers such as tax regimes or Earth→space transfers strongly shape the socioeconomic profile of settlers. — This reframes debates about space colonization from engineering and wonder to concrete economic and policy thresholds—who goes, why, and how to incentivize them depend on price, taxes, and transfer designs today.