Elysium was the opposite tho, in that earth was trashed and the elites lived in space.Elysium
But Jeff bezos plan makes more sense. The earth is the real prize. It'll be a long time before humanity is capable of teraforming mars or traveling to another habitable world.
So in the in-between time, before that happens, earth is where it's at. That's the gem.
They just gotta figure out how to trick enough people to voluntarily leave earth for space.