[ozborn]

Agree, but with the caveat that space does allow the possibility of escape from broken political and economic systems. That escape may be temporary, but it is real. Also, add me as another vote for the Expanse, both the books and TV series.

[victorbjorklund]

Doesn't living on a boat in the middle of Atlantic do the same? Or on a remote island in the middle of nowhere? Or in the middle of nowhere in the amazons or Siberia? Probably not the most comfortable places but probably more comfortable than space.

[cosmic_cheese]

Those places are too accessible and too easy for major existing powers to lay claim to if a new settlements there start to thrive. This is especially true for any place on dry land (you really think Russia would allow independence of an economically healthy and growing city-state in Siberia? Fat chance).

Basically every square inch of Earth has effectively been spoken for already save for the oceans, but nation states will still happily invent reasons why they actually control the plot you’ve put your city on (“some tiny island in the vicinity is under ours, thus so is your city!”) or maybe just won’t bother with pretext at all and threaten military action unless you comply.

All that becomes much less practical in space, and the further out you go the less likely it is that Earth based powers will bother you (especially if we never invent the efficient significant-fraction-of-light-speed engines that enable the plot of The Expanse).

Now of course going out there introduces all sorts of other problems, but existing power interference is not among them.