It's not about who can afford the costs. It's whether we should be spending the money for heading back to the Moon when we clearly are not ready to do so yet.

All of Margaret Wertheim's argument assume we plan to colonize the Moon really soon and not study and explore it first. The full list of her objections are...

1. Cost.
2. There Is No Atmosphere.
3. Radiation.
4. Lack of Water.
5. The Gravity Well. (editor: This is the argument against the Moon as a base for building or fueling spacecraft for elsewhere.)
6. Lack of Accessible Resources.
7. The Myth of Helium 3.
8. The Moondoggle Factor.

The rest is here: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/06/07/feuilletons-reasons.php