Alien ship headed for us?

[VulcanWerks]

I agree with your general idea, yes, there would be at least some panic... if only because some of our cultures and communities will practically demand it.  And that will be amplified by the establishment/media cabal.... (that's what they do.)  However, their main public posture has been to portray such panic as anarchy, mass rioting, murderous rampages and self-destruction and all manner of uncivilized behavior...  When they 'claim' panic, this is what they are talking about... The only thing panic-worthy will be the loss of their control over the narrative - in reality, they've actually been projecting how "they" would panic.

You have asked, "Isn’t it kind of negligent of us as a species to have not created space-based defense systems?"  

I have to wonder, isn't that what the profit-taking world would consider 'an externality?'  I mean, how much money can they make doing it?  Does it compare with the amount that can be achieved in endless ideological conflicts?  Our government, and most others, do NOTHING (at all) unless there are riches to be made... just look at the bank accounts... it tells us everything we need to know.

Also, space-based defenses would be 'whose property?'  Who will they fleece for profit?  And even if it was "our side," does that mean 'any' other side wouldn't be protected?   It's kind of difficult to see that working (for them) as things are in the 'bloodstream' of business.  Of course, once there is a single governmental authority taxing people for global "virtue," all reason goes out the window.

Idealistically, the first thing we must do as a "civilization" is remove these constraints of profit - which have deprived us of too many advances...  We have technological advances that we can't access - simply because there isn't enough 'money' in it, or it threatens sacred cash-cow ventures and entrenched profit schemes.

You make good points all around.

Interesting.

So how do we get there with the profit motive?

It would need to something massive in either the entire system collapses and we use what’s left over as our new starting point once the dust settles, or it’s the something that’s unifying at a global scale that lives above money.

Meaning, money would still matter but differently because there’s something universally unifying above it. Note, this would have to transcend religion to an extent.

There isn’t much that can do that. But, asteroids, alien invasions, supernovas, moons, space, science seem to be areas of common ground. Those things that pose universal existential threat. Regan was in fact right at his UN speech - it would have to be something like this to see the world band together and have a chance at coming out the other side a lot differently. You could have plenty of “capitalism” in that society because the growth would be enormous.

Off the top of my head one of those two ways kind of represent the easy way and the hard way. While I do think a restart would help us in a lot of ways, I just don’t think that’s tenable or in our broader best interest in the hear and now. So, gotta do it with profit motive and capitalism.