Re: Ferengi philosophy
There are many millionaires in my neck of the woods who made a great deal of profit by doing something outlandish that no one had done before. Don't confuse capitalism with a lack of imagination. The country I'm living in is proof that that capitalism and thinking about the future are not incompatible.
When people do start going into space in a big way, you might be surprised at the reasons they're going. Progress has tended to surprise us in the past.