Why do the rich want to colonize Mars?

TIL that Elon Musk wants to use Mars as a backup planet incase of something bad happening to Earth. <br><br>I am having a hard time following the reasoning. If we cannot stop global warming and we cannot stop the next pandemic, how are we supposed to colonize Mars? <br><br>Not to mention that Elon Musk says that he wants to drop the price of travel to Mars to somewhere around $200,000. That is like a really expensive Search and Rescue. For the price of one person to escape to Mars, you could probably save 1000 people on Earth.<br><br>This leads me to my next question. If you cannot afford to escape to Mars, will you be provided the tools to survive on Earth in the event of a global disaster?? <br><br>I think the money that is being invested into making Mars habitable should be spent on making Earth habitable. I have no problem salvaging people who are stranded in mountains or at sea. I do have a problem with the idea that the rich get to escape a non-natural disaster that the rich caused.