At the end of the day, space is what's next. Humans are explorers. We left the safety of the cave, we built ships to cross the vastness of the oceans. We're now building ships to cross the small section of the vastness of space we can.
So far, it's private money moving that direction. It's not tax dollars. If some uber rich asshole wants to spend his money on this, so be it. It's his money. If it doesn't work out, okay, we learn from it. But not going is just not going to happen. It's part of the human experience to ask "what's next" and then do it. Less adventurous can sit at home. The meek shall inherit the earth, the bold are going to space!
By all means; spend your money however you want, but a few billionaires using their personal wealth to fund Mars colonization efforts "just because" isn't going to be nearly enough to build a self-sustaining city there. Musk is talking about sending hundreds of Megatons to orbit every year, for the foreseeable future[1]. He wants an armada of one thousand Starships departing for Mars every 26 months[2]. That's what it would take to build a self-sustaining city on Mars, and it's a multi-trillion dollar effort; not the sort of thing that can be funded by a few wealthy donors.
The only way I can see large-scale Mars colonization happening is if there's a strong economic incentive for that. It isn't going to happen just because a few people want it to, or think it's the "next step for humanity".
So far, it's private money moving that direction. It's not tax dollars. If some uber rich asshole wants to spend his money on this, so be it. It's his money. If it doesn't work out, okay, we learn from it. But not going is just not going to happen. It's part of the human experience to ask "what's next" and then do it. Less adventurous can sit at home. The meek shall inherit the earth, the bold are going to space!