The Art of Lunar Community

From a piece co-written by Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon:

A base on the Moon does not have to be a permanent government-controlled and owned facility. After it has been fully established, control could be handed over to a private non-profit consortium that would lease space to companies and governments which will then pursue their individual goals, such as energy, research, tourism, or developing the technology and supplies needed for further space exploration.

Before the Lunar anarchists claim Aldrin as one of their own, they should note the phrase "after it has been fully established." Aldrin still thinks the government should subsidize the settlement of space, and he proposes this privatization in the context of endorsing NASA's latest moondoggle. Me, I think any moonbase should be private because I don't want to spend any tax dollars building and maintaining it. If that means we end up with no moonbase, the disappointment won't kill me.