&gt; How much value has America created since it was a colony?<p>The comparison to America is terrible, if you ask me.  If the american continent was looking anything like Mars, people would have never settled there and the value you&#x27;re talking about would be very close to zero.<p>If seems dishonest to me to compare mars with the American continent, especially considering that if we want to compare mars with the discovery of a whole continent, there is one that looks much more like mars : Antarctica.  There is no record whatsoever of any long-term human occupation there.  That has to prove that humans tend to dislike living in cold deserts.<p>By comparison, the american continent has been inhabited for thousands of years, and its discovery by Europeans has brought many extremely appreciated plants and animals.<p>What is there to bring from mars that there is not on Earth already?  Apart from vast areas of rusted rocks and dust, not much, except perhaps for the possibility of fulfilling the fantasy of people who have read or watched too much science-fiction.<p>I mean, a settlement on mars can have value, but it will only be the value that you&#x27;ll bring there.  For instance if you build an hotel or casino there (as I personally believe tourism is one of the very few business models that make sense for mars), then the fact that it is on mars will not bring much more value than the intrinsic value of your hotel or casino itself.