But I'd rather see these flamboyant salesmen Billionaires spending their money on something that pushes boundaries and provides employment for innovators. I'm as envious of their wealth as the next guy, but get a good feeling from seeing their money go to something that captures the public imagination and perhaps boosts the human spirit of endeavor just a little bit.
Whilst I agree with your sentiment, the real world is not that simple. We, in the West, live in a highly financialised economy. People make money trading derivatives and ideas: profit without production. IMHO, the crazy schemes for sending people to Mars are a perfect example of this: ideas for investment, profit today. Nobody will ever actually build anything in the future, but the money will turn around nonetheless.
VG's project sprang off from genius Burt Rutan, and his Scaled Composites. Now that he's retired, I don't see there being sufficient impetus to push forward the practical side of the project; after all, it's difficult and expensive, and the financial types prefer easy money.
Also, I've learned from reading this thread just how far this technology is from orbital flight. It simply won't be scalable to orbital launches, and so any comments about a stepping stone towards private orbiting hotels are misinformation. Yes to "capturing the public imagination" and "boosting human endeavor". But using misinformation to do so would be counter-productive IMHO.