Space colonization as a 'safety valve'

Very good thought exercise tangoman

Some issues can possibly be postponed, such as need for space based currency... many countries now base their economy on the US dollar as a currency. Simply because using it creates a stability in their economy because they know that no local manipulations will change the currency medium.

The amount of Space created energy exported to Earth use will be able to be quite large without fear of undercutting the value...the Earth demand for energy is quite large, and there will need to be quite a bit more to become finally "extra".... just as long as the cost for energy on Earth stays somewhat stable , i.e. cost fo building a hydroelectric dam, drill for oil or burn some sourced combustionable material (and its secondary costs included).

Now if there are some break throughs in cheap energy production, and transmission costs on Earth, such as hundreds of OTECS, fussion, ocean currents turbines, the energy costs curve should be relatively stable or at least in upswing.... or at least it would seem so. And once the Space based energy is in place, cost of developing a new energy source and installing it will be not cost effective against the stable Space based energy....pretty much like OPEC has done for energy development in the last few decades...(in spite of occassional up ticks in oil prices, to scrap ALL the oil based infrastructure and start someting new just was not cost productive).