Maybe they all have to do Federal Service like Starship Troopers but instead of military you have to go be a plumber or builder or something for some amount of time.
There may be something to be said for the idea of mandatory public service, but the
Starship Troopers model is tyrannical: citizenship and enfranchisement should absolutely not be restricted on the basis of any sort of perceived "merit." They are
rights and should be treated as such.
(Paul Verhoeven was right to depicted the supposedly meritocratic democracy of
Starship Troopers as being in reality a militaristic, fascistic system in his film adaptation.)
You get basic needs through your house replicator. Thing is people nowadays will go do stuff for free, like volunteering, so I can imagine that sentiment being possible in some post scarcity economy, especially one where all the old ways got nuked in World War 3. You will still have people that try to manipulate the system for their own benefit but in some imaginary world everything mostly goes right.
This sounds about right to me. We know from PIC "Remembrance" that some home replicators have a more extensive library of things they can fabricate than others, but it would seem that a basic replicator can probably produce most of a person's essential physical needs.
Yeah one thing 90s trek never managed to explain completely is who cleans everything. I think they sometimes claimed that the Enterprise is "self-cleaning" or something like that, but how that's supposed to work is never explained.
Well, aboard starships, we know cleaning is at least partially one of the duties of low-ranking officers. But we also know from
Short Treks: "Ephraim and Dot" and from DIS that Federation starships have carried sophisticated automated robotics technology since at least the 2250s. So I think it's a combination of human effort and automation. I imagine automation is used more extensively in civilian life for janitorial work than on starships -- gotta give your crew something unpleasant to do to build character and discipline, after all.
Though the question is how much plumbing they really need is questionable, it's possible that their showers/bathtubs just replicate water and "recycle" it back into energy at the end.
Entirely plausible. Though I think something to bear in mind:
And it's possible that...waste...is similarly recycled into replicator energy.
We know from numerous episodes that Federation starships and starbases often maintain hydroponics bays to grow fresh fruit and vegetables. It's entirely plausible that these hydroponics bays may utilize the existing water and waste systems without replicating anything.
Ultimately I suppose it's a question of which system is more energy efficient -- replicating and dematerializing as needed, or recycling water and waste without using the replicator system.
Considering how much the characters always bitch about how replicated food is, somehow, inferior to home made stuff, I find it possible that replicated clothes and objects might be thought of similarly. Meaning things like hand tailored clothes and furniture survive as luxury articles that you can buy and sell for "credits", The bulk of the population just replicates their clothes and other things for very, very cheap/free and non-replicated clothes are all now hand-tailored by people who just have a passion for fashion (like Garak) and trades and craftsmanship probably have made a huge comeback. There likely aren't any chain stores anymore and no things like children in poorer countries being forced to sow jeans in sweatshops.
Sounds about right to me. Although I think the example of Garak is perhaps not illustrative of the Federation as a whole, since the station is Bajoran territory and it's not clear if Bajor has abandoned capitalism yet.
In fact an article like a dress made out of non-replicated material might even be a lot more expensive/luxurious than a hand-tailored dress would be today. There's likely not a lot cotton production going on anymore. Wool only from people who just like to keep sheep as pets. Non-replicated silk and leather might be completely unobtainable if you take Riker's words about not "enslaving" animals for their products anymore as gospel (since you need to kill animals to obtain leather and silk)
So a hand-tailored dress made out of non-replicated cotton is probably something mostly "rich" people can afford in the 24th century or something that's saved for special occasions.
So there would still be luxury, possibly even less obtainable than it is today, but there's no longer any poverty.
Interesting thoughts!
Incorrect.
Money was useful during actual scarcity in specific areas which required management of some kind to ration the said resources, but that stopped being the case when we developed technology to mass produce abundance.
The notion of 'trade' and 'transactions' is useless in a technologically advanced society like ours that is already generating abundance... and an obstruction which leads to ridiculous mis-management of Earth's resources, excessive waste, climate change, and millions of deaths that occur every year ( about 9 million die due to hunger every year, even though we produce enough to feed over 10 billion... 1.5 million die due to preventable diseases, and at least 500 000 die annually due to homelessness, despite there being more homes than homeless people).
Money WAS a useful invention, but it outgrew its usefulness along with politicians since the first great depression hit in the 1930-ies.
Your argument here is based on the assumption that all goods and services are fungible, and that there is never a situation in which different parties need items that they cannot obtain through direct barter. I find these premises suspect.
