It's a necessary step for harvesting asteroids or launching long flights.
At some point, if we continue to progress, that will become a must.
The planet has finite space and resources. Both of those problems are solved by opening up space access.
It requires some forethought by the population though.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit
Harvesting asteroids is projected to be a very profitable undertaking. I'd hate to see tax payers do the heavy lifting, and then turn the technology over to private industry that didn't pay for the R&D.
I bet you get disappointed often. :)
Business always gets its hands on profitable ventures, and will never take a loss 'for the good of all'. I agree it's a shit system, but it's the way things are.
Sometimes it requires sacrifice to move forward. It doesn't matter who should do it. All that matters is who will do it.
I'm one tax-payer who's willing to take the hit. Especially if those tax-dollars create local jobs and revenue.
I'm not sure why we need one, either. It's just a toy to those who wanna spend money and pretend their doing valid science, while also pretending to be astronauts.
Which makes me wonder, do we really need a space station?
Space is awesome, but being anti-tax, I'm not sure citizens should be forced to pay for a station.