Who owns the moon? A trivial pursuits question but it has an answer: no one owns the Moon. That’s because of a piece of international law. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967, put forward by the United Nations, says that space belongs to no one country or one person.
This is not to the liking of the free market fanatics at the Adam Smith Institute (ASI). They exist to defend the private ownership of the means of production and distribution to the exclusion of the vast majority. The market is their God. Commodity production and exchange for profit is all that matters.
Now this sect has its eyes on the moon. The ASI believes businesses should be allowed to privatise the moon and other parts of space. It was a PR stunt to get them noticed (Independent 11 Feb 2022). They crave attention for their madcap ideas.
The ASI thinks that property rights in space would boost the economy and reduce poverty. Well, capitalism holds back the forces of production on Earth and creates world-wide poverty, so extending it into space is a non-starter except, that is, to make a profit. That is the real aim of the ASI. Profit and capital accumulation for a capitalist minority is what the ASI is all about, even though it masquerades as a charity.
What is not needed is international treaties, free market fanatics and capitalism. What is needed to harness the benefits of planets, passing asteroids and space in general is the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production and distribution by all of society.
That is: the establishment of world socialism.
