Just what is the economy in
Star Trek?
I'll be open for a moment, I'm an Ex-trekkie, but this one thing bothered me then and it still does today. It seems that the whole of the Star Trek universe operates on some horribly mangled form of
socialism. Let me break this down a bit.
So, you have the
Ferengi, obviously run by capitalism, for better or worse. But at least they have a social structure that is explained by the plot. "The Ferengi are attacking because they think they can profit."
But Why does the Federation continue to run at all? You have replication tech that can produce all the food needed. And it seems that it has been distributed to the masses, because, as I remember, there was an episode where someone came from the past and it was explained to him that widespread hunger was no more (it was Mark Twain, as I recall).
Why would anyone ever work? Why would someone become a Starship captain? Personal gain? Ok, I can buy that, but then how about shit jobs that no one likes? How would any of that ever get done? It all contributes to
Why nothing like Star Trek would ever happen.
And sorry
Tem42, the
robot argument dosn't fly. Someone has to make the robots. There isn't any mention of Nanotech in any incarnation of
Star trek that I can think of, and even if there were, someone has to design said robot. Of all the SF
stories and
shows,
Star Trek seems to be the least dependant on them. Even the service ducts of the
Enterprise D had ladders to human scale, and no HINT of any sort of service bot. I can't imagine that the flagship would just not have the
building block of their entire
society.
BTW,
Economy !=
Money system. Anyone can create a money system, but
Money does not an
Economy make.