" It's still going to be excruciatingly expensive, and I doubt there are 600,000 people on the planet that could afford it"
When you're talking about that amount of people, the bulk of them will be there as unskilled / semi-skilled workers (mostly space farmers) with a small elite directing them. I suspect that most likely the workers will be made up of a bunch of undesirables* and/or expendables** with nothing to lose to be forcefully relocated or *ahem* 'convinced' to take up the role of Mars proles with a few military types to keep them in line.
*As in past Chinese/Russian 'labour camps'
** As in current Indian workers in UAE / Qatar etc
Biting the hand that feeds IT
