Everyone knows that the Ferengi are the go-to guys when you need something.
These Utopian movies maybe fun to watch but only if you are capable of suspending your critical thinking. I frequently am not and get irritated a particular movie or TV program.
I frequently annoy my wife when I can’t help myself and blurt out one of the fanciful flights of fantasy that the screen play author utilized to create a Utopian civilization.
What got me about the first new one was them building the Enterprise on the surface of Earth. How were they going to get something into space that has a warp drive, and apparently has a Bussard ramjet as its main propulsion? How the heck do you get that thing into orbit?
Any time I get pulled into this subject with a Trekker, I point out the guy in the background in Start Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, who is vacuuming the floors as Kirk and Spock walk down a hallway. If there is no money, why would he be vacuuming the hallway, as that is something people only do for money, not the thrill of it.
Federation credits is mentioned frequently as the form of payment. Bartering was another. The economy was supposed to be more like the bitcoins we see today. That is to say credits not backed by a govt or a world, but still accepted for payment of tribbles and such. So if there was no govt-backed “money”, Picard was correct to some extent, but he also wasn’t telling the whole story that can be gleaned from many other episodes.
I think towards the end all their talk of utopia was proven false. Just cause a communist believes he is right doesnt make him so. Picard just believed everthing was cool.
Towards the end the federations evil underbelly started to show. Like the incident that nearly ruined rikers career. also look at what happened to the baku.
Also i dont think everyone got all the toys. That was mainly starfleet.
i think had the series continued we would have seen the federation crumbleand a free republic of planets appear.
“The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives,””
IF you are in Starfleet, or work for the Federation Government. Then you get stipends and full retirement, (IF you live that long).
For the rest of Humanity, it is likely not so much.
As is often noted, the remote colonies are made up of people wanting to escape the rigid life in Sol/Earth. Some are even acknowledged to be based along religious, or even racial lines (The American Indian “Maquis” Colonies in DS9, for example).
IMO, if you don’t fit into, or accept the rigid hierarchy of Federation control, you are basically left to sweep the floors, take out the trash, or seek a new life for yourself in the Colonies.
Speaking of Starfleet, how mad would you have to make a superior to get a 3 year posting on a remote, 3 man monitoring post on the Romulan Border?
“...young James T. Kirk activates the computer system of a car he swiped for a joyride, and the Nokia logo comes up. It’s nice to see Nokia’s still in business in the twenty-third century.”
That’s called product placement.
WHO FRICKIN’ CARES?!? IT’S STAR TREK!!!
The whole point was they didn’t bother to explain such things.
Robots will handle many of the unpleasant tasks in a high-tech future, if we get there. At least for a while.
“More evidence of the absurdity of the twenty-fourth century’s flimsy Utopia is easy to find. In the series “Deep Space Nine”, Captain Sisko’s father was an expert chef who ran a restaurant in New Orleans.”
In an all-effort to prove my geekdom, DS9 doesn’t really fit the Roddenberry utopia the author is trying to assault. It’s a much more morally ambiguous setting, with very little of the Preachy Picard moral lessons of the early TNG, and a lot more of making deals with the devil to get things done. Money certainly exists, too.
Everything is created through labor, both mental and physical. If you consume more than your labor produced, you’re taking what belongs to someone else. Unfortunately there are people who think someone other than themselves should do the work. There are whole political movements around that idea.
It’s science fiction. What do you expect, workable detailed economic cycles?
Whenever I hear someone use Star Trek as an example of the economic policy mankind should strive for, I want to smack the person saying it. They clearly don’t have enough brains to ask “Where does all that stuff they use come from?”
There isn’t no money in Trek. There just isn’t a lot of need for it. But credits exist, so you can get a job with pay, but you don’t have to.