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There was plenty of discussion in TOS that the supply situation of the Federation had been solved. Poverty was a thing of the past. And you can see it any time they’re dealing with civilians, what do most of them do? Nothing really, handful of freeboot traders. It’s even in the plots, any time there’s a shortage of anything they have to point out how this thing is one of those odd things that replicators can’t handle.

As a matter of fact, we're well on the way to solving poverty. China was a dirt-poor cesspool 60 years ago, for example. I don't think you will find replicators in China.

Much human poverty has nothing to do with a lack of resources, but with human corruption and manipulation.

Go back and review the original series. You will discover civilians with productive lives. How peculiar that someone on a conservative website should denigrate 'traders', i.e., entrepreneurs.

Who said anything about drooling. Part of the whole back story of the Federation is that having eliminated poverty people are freed to explore self expression. That “eliminated poverty” phrase appears a lot. How does one eliminate poverty, well replicators are a good start. Of course there is some borderline drooling with some of civilians they encounter, like the space hippies, Mudd.

Real hippies sat around, did drugs, abstained from soap and water and stank. Mudd was no hippie.

Notice how studiously they had to be to make sure we can’t replicate dilithium. The only time there’s ever scarcity it’s because that item is one of the “special” items. Meanwhile we know replicators can provide all the basics of life, all food, clothing, and basic household goods (most of which you don’t actually need anymore because you have a replicator).

I recall nothing in the OS implying everyone had a replication device.

The physics of transporting is actually pretty well understood. The energy requirements are literally astronomical (as in our sun could provide enough energy to transport 2 people, tops, ever), it’s a total magic box.

Societies that learn to use the energies of stars might not find it such a magic box. It's a mistake to think that tomorrow is going to look like an extension of today. In 1900, one of the great problems of cities was disposing of horse manure. Nobody could imagine how horse manure would be dealt with in 1950.

You dislike JJ-Trek because you’re another stuck on whiny Trek fan that’s made that he managed to make the most critically acclaimed AND most profitable Trek movie ever. It’s no more shallow than TOS. Actually probably less, somehow I doubt JJ-Trek is ever going to venture to “I am Kirok”.

"Critically acclaimed"? There have always been critics ready to acclaim all manner of refuse. Just because a critic likes something doesn't mean it is any good. Professional critics typically adore movies with left-wing themes that blatantly lie about the past, which does not elevate these works above the level of propaganda.

When did profitability indicate quality? People frequently stampede after the over-hyped. There are a lot of formerly best-selling novels that nobody reads anymore. They once enjoyed fashion and made money, but they are forgotten.

We’re in a country adding 11 thousand foodstamp recipients a day. We’re no where near solving poverty. There’s still plenty of China that is a dirt-poor cesspool, and other parts that are just a cesspool.

A lot of poverty has to do with a lack of effort and poor decision making. This is where replicators do a good job of solving it, even the habitually lazy can get their needs fulfilled, of course there’s a necessary socialist element in there too. But replicator kind of make that necessary, in a society where all basic needs are provided by a magic box a lot of jobs become unnecessary.

I didn’t denigrate traders. Just pointed out they’re a large chunk of the civilian population we encounter in TOS. It should be noted though that most of the traders we encounter in TOS aren’t entrepreneurs so much as bored people looking for some fun.

There was a comma there, space hippies and Mudd separate people. Both of which were basically lay abouts.

Some things are constant. You mentioned the physics of transporters, well the physics of transporters is that converting mass to energy and back again requires vast quantities energy, all of the energy in the sun. That’s not going to change. Now we might find another source for that energy, the magical dilithium crystals, but the quantity of energy needed doesn’t change, just the availability. Which goes a long way to explain why warp core breaches are so catastrophic. But until we find unobtanium transporters are a magic box.

In the end it’s entertainment. Movies are there to entertain the masses. JJ-ST entertained the masses, and scored a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. It did the job. And here you are still complaining about it years later, so much for the being forgotten part.

The big problem is there’s that chunk of fen that treat Trek like a religion. They were willing to put up with a lot of bad Trek (which really makes up the majority of the old timeline stuff) because it kept paying lip service to some ideal Roddenberry put forth, always of course carefully ignoring the fact that Roddenberry was kind of an SOB, and that a lot of what made TOS awesome came from a different Gene entirely (Gene L Coon who actually is the guy that wrote a lot of the deep scripts people point to, and gave us Klingons). But they deified Roddenberry, and studiously ignored how painfully boring the Trek he did without Coon was (first 3 season of TNG, the “no conflict” years), and ignored how the best Trek movie was based on a Coon character (yeah he wrote Space Seed and gave us Khan). Which has a lot to do with why I like JJ-ST, there’s a lot more Coon in it, it’s a lot more exciting, the bad guys are bad, and the bridge crew get to argue with each other.