Lighten up Francis! I was a Trekkie in 1970 and I still am. I laugh at the economy of the United Federation of Planets because the near limitless energy of the antimatter reactor, combined with the matter replicator actually make communism work.
In the Star Trek universe, you really can make Marx’s dream come true and that’s actually a good thing. It illustrates the folly of trying to make it come true in a world where energy comes largely from buring fossil fuels and every manufactured product must start out as a specific set of raw materials processed by labor on expensive, high maintenance machinery and then shipped to the consumer by mechanical transportation.
When a Leftist starts telling me about the “freedom” of communism because people don’t have the profit motive anymore, I usually talk about Star Trek as the reason why it doesn’t work and what kind of technological advances it will require to actually make their dream work.
I’m glad Rodenberry was such a progressive because he proved that communism only works when you can ignore Newton’s Laws of Physics.
The are a lot of other laws you have to ignore also.
You beat me to it. Star Trek NG had two things; dilithium crystals (almost limitless energy) and replicators. But people still bought things. Remember when Dr. Crusher wanted to buy fabric? (Far Point?) Also holodecks could supply any experience one could want and it was only a matter of “first come, first serve.” It’s impossible to say what effect these technologies would have on a society.
All they did in their society was to eradicate one manner of differentiating oneself (earning money and accumulating wealth), and replace it with another (accumulating position and power). This what happens in absolutely every instance in which the stupidity that is communism/socialism is tried.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b56e0u0EgQ
Captain Kirk Preamble
It wouldn’t even work then. There is still a work requirement even with anti-matter energy. Still, a good place to get the guys in the red shirts.
Still, that doesn't solve all scarcity. Some people still own restaurants and mountain cabins and lavish beachfront homes. Not everybody can. Sure, maybe you can use holograms to simulate the effect, but somebody still gets the real thing. The Picards own real vineyards in La Barre, France. What happens if somebody else decides they want those vineyards?
I laugh at the economy of the United Federation of Planets because the near limitless energy of the antimatter reactor, combined with the matter replicator actually make communism work.
Combine that with the “holo-suites” and you’d have very few people motivated to explore the universe.
Most of the population would be fat perverts living bizarre virtual fantasies.
If you don’t believe me, look at liberals.
The Enterprise visited many apparently successful Utopian Socialist Cultures ranging from primitive to pre-warp. The whole point of each episode was the revelation that there was an ugly often violent or horrible underbelly that The Enterprise was compelled to stop. This was possibly my first look at the nonsense of egalitarianism by force!
These are from TOS:
"A Taste of Armageddon"
"The Return of the Archons"
"This Side of Paradise"
"The Apple"
"A Private Little War"
"Patterns of Force"
"The Omega Glory"
"Bread and Circuses"
"The Paradise Syndrome"
"For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky"
"The Mark of Gideon"
I'm not as familiar with the other TV series and Movies.