Unless I am mistaken, building megastructures in space will likely require (and regardless be greatly facilitated by) programmable self replicating machines. Labour shortages and cost of transportation makes manufacturing many robots in an industrial zone (e.g. on earth) and shipping them to the desired operation location (e.g. on Mercury) unattractive as a solution.

@CattleCorn @scottsantens I'm terrified that so many people are selecting a jobs guarantee; it's an economist's nightmare.

For one, it incentivises inefficiency. A jobs guarantee decouples employee productivity from employee compensation. This removes any incentive for productivity. @CattleCorn @scottsantens Secondly, the massive bureaucracy involved in employing tens (if not hundreds of millions of people) would create more systematic inefficiencies and lead to wastage of resources.