The Outer Space Treaty was written with the party states knowing that it was a medium term measure. Capitalism will come to The Moon, Mars, and Venus. It will start with people just building wherever there is available land, like we did on the frontier, then once a couple thousand or a couple hundred thousand people are in outer space a new treaty will be formed around the political realities of the day.
"Capitalism will come to The Moon, Mars, and Venus."
The thing is that the order on which capitalism relies on to exist is not uphold outside the recognized international treaties. So, good luck on defending whatever ownership claims you have or you'll just have to submit to whoever can reach you and has more power than you. Also, it's kind of pointless for a government on Earth to claim ownership of outer space unless the means of maintaining permanent connections with said properties will significantly change. Think about what kind of connection you'll have with "yours" when it takes years to step from one part to another of the same country with nothing in between.
Extraterrestrial contact aside, governments will recognize property in space because it is in their interests to coordinate teams and allocate resources. This is most easily done through state backed capitalism. Governments that act in bad faith will see a dramatic drop in wealth due to sanctions and there is always MAD as a final safeguard.
I agree. In some ways the OST resembles the Antarctic Treaty: intended to mitigate the near and medium-term problems until something new comes along.
And I don't have a problem with capitalism per se, but our legal and political systems don't seem to be doing a very good job of managing its excesses.
