Star Trek is fiction.
The Picard winery-restaurant scenario depicted is called barter. Money was invented to overcome the limitations of barter.
Currency has been abolished and poverty is a thing of the past. No one is in want.
Human nature is focused on higher pursuits than materialistic consumption and satisfaction.
If the Star Trek writers had any understanding of economics they’d depict the Ferengi ruling the galaxy.
Star Trek: DS9 was the best series on realism in that arena.
>>I think that Star Trek is communistic and Star Wars is free market capitalism.<<
Based on the article, Star Trek is set in Compton.
And there is NO universe that will let a child be at the helm of a Star Ship with nearly 1,000 people aboard.
Roddenberry always said — place it in today’s world. Picture a 13-YO brat helming an Air Craft Carrier (or a Destroyer or an LTR).
Leftists are really at heart supremacists as this silly piece illustrates they almost always believe that regardless of how worthless they really are or deluded they think that they would be the “Picards”. That they represent the best of us and deserve the best seats at all the French restaurants because they are just so naturally wonderful, likable, cool and shit. Cause what is a more cool than throwing in gratuitous profanity? Who cares if their idea of a venus de milo is a transvestite Michael Moore.
They dream of a better world where they can write awful novels that no one wants to read and paint art that is indistinguishable from explosive diarrhea. The irony is they wouldn’t let something like Starfleet exist because the fiction Starfleet was a meritocracy. You didn’t get in just because you tried hard. Could you imagine a bunch of left wingers in Starfleet negotiating with Klingons to give peace a chance?
I think Next Generation stated that they lived in a post-scarcity society, meaning our understanding of economics is outdated.
Although you can tell the writers had anti-Capitalist leanings.
Star trek is cool, and intelligent, Star wars is for children who need a monarch.
There a set of term i use for two styles of writing sci-fy..
thought experiments vs masturbation fantasies...
Star Trek the original series best writing was thought experiments .realistic hard choices and unhappy endings....
conversely Next Generation was idiotic masturbation fantasies
all the troubles of life were solved just because the writer decided to say they were solved
The replicators on Star Trek can make any material object, from food to clothing to sundries. Power is supplied by matter-antimatter reactions and is likewise abundant, having near-zero cost. Things that are infinitely abundant are infinitely cheap. What would have value in such a society?
One can imagine ideas and service would be the value commodities of the Star Trek universe. How would such a knowledge- and service-based economy work? Not sure.
I would bet 3000 quatloos against it being any kind of economic system that we would recognize.
Oh, wait...it's not real....
With the introduction of the replicator, anybody could make anything. Except Captain Kirk.He never had enough replacement parts.
When mankind’s every need is met with the push of a button, we’ll have utopia.
Believe it or not, we’re there right now. The singularity (google it)is happening as we speak. Hold on for a wild ride that’ll make your old heads spin.
Of course it is. What else would it be? It’s science fiction.
I think the things about the “Star Trek” world that drive the economy is cheap energy and the ability to transform elements from one form to another. You can create food from “nothing” and you can manufacture anything you need.
It has nothing to do with being communist.
Of the five television series, four of them dealt mainly with Starfleet personnel and their dependents. The other one, Deep Space Nine, featured civilian business owners, mainly a restaurateur and a tailor. Aside from their extracurricular activities, both of them provided something handmade in an era of perfect replication. There is also the question of exchange. In the series, they used something called Latinum, which was used informally, as well as for exchanges that the participants did not want tracked.
Trying to see the world of the 24th century on the Star Trek series would be like trying to view the early 21 21st century exclusively through NCIS.
Once you have replicators most of your population becomes unemployable, but providing for them is very easy. So yes, it’s a welfare state.