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We've had an in-orbit base for over 20 years without any claim of future tax revenue or commercial viability. On Earth, we have a long history of establishing research bases in places where there is no potential for a viable colony (e.g. Antarctica).

All we need is the political will and we can fund a Mars base as a purely government funded research program.

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Sure a research base, but we probably wont see colonies on mars for the same reasons we don't see colonies in antarctica.

A self-sufficient colony outside Earth is a worthy goal in and of itself:

1. The indomitable human spirit and drive to explore and expand

2. It's cool

3. More room for humans

There are also reasons that don't apply to Antarctica:

1. Hedging our bets against planet-ending catastrophes (global warming, giant asteroid/comet strike, ultra-pandemic)

2. Another stepping stone to exploring further interesting/important space goals, like gathering resources from the asteroid belt/moons of jupiter/etc, discovering life on Europa, and so on

Part of the reason we don't colonize Antarctica is that it isn't romanticized to the same degree as the colonization of Mars.

That was a time of reasonable faith in science and a political era where one could get large agendas done.

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