Industrial agriculture based on resource extraction is self destructing and will eventually fail, but we kept doing it because Ag giants made too much money and now we have crossed a threshold where there is no viable alternative and we are stuck with an inevitable die-off. We know this for certain along with all the other dire scenarios that have been warned about by the pentagon and ignored by the media, which is why we now have rich guys obsessed with making their own space program. This is not for “us” but an escape pod for wealthy elites who are getting nervous about what is happening all around us. The Capitalist Carl Sagan bullshit is a narrative they cooked up to sucker us in to paying for it with our tax money.
Maybe your vision is accurate for the next couple of generations, but look at how quickly technology has advanced since the space age was ushered in.
We've exponentially increased our technical knowledge the last 70 years. It dwarfs the entirety of human knowledge that cane before it.
We piggybacked on the math and scientific studies of the scholars who came before, but every stepping stone has now snowballed into an avalanche of knowledge and skills. The phones and computers we use daily would be like magic to anyone living at the turn of the 20th century or earlier.
Space flight
heart transplants
pharmaceuticals
super sonic travel
solar energy
microwave ovens
power tools
nuclear weapons
atomic energy
GPS technology
cell phones
"lasers"

The list of technical achievements is almost endless, and there is no reason to believe the end is in sight. In fact, I believe we have barely touched the surface of what we can eventually do.
Why does it matter who pays for exploration? I see many people decrying the tax dollars that Elon Musk gets each year to build his cars. Yet, here you are bashing him for using his money to explore space? Do you think the patents for his technological advances will stop the gov't from using them?
I'm not really sure what your argument is against or for. Seems like you hate rich people using their money to build what they want, even without knowing now whether the efforts will benefit mankind or not.
Are you saying the Gov't can make better use of those funds for making our lives here more comfortable? Screw the future generations that might need an option to colonize another place besides Earth in advance of the "dire scenarios"?
No matter how much we'd like to believe we can protect our planet, the truth is, we have limitations. If/when the worst happens, someone -- anyone -- better have an exit strategy.
You and I won't have to deal with that, I predict. But then, I do have kids and a grand kid to consider.