[dmm]

I was going to try to argue that maybe the colony ship only carries enough stuff to "bootstrap" the colony. So that, instead of carrying housing modules, it carries a ready-to-assemble factory that makes use of local resources. But then I was unable to explain how they could make fully-functional domed habitats for 100,000 people in 1/10 of a year. That would be SOME factory!

So, instead I'll argue that private sources -- banks, merchants, industries, and the colonists themselves -- bear most of the cost of a colony ship. The cost paid by an empire is only the cost of subsidizing the colonization. In contrast, military ships are paid for entirely by the empire.

What do you think of that idea?