Would lazy people be frowned upon on 24th century earth in Star Trek?

I've always wondered this.

It's a utopian paradise on earth in the 24th century, with the acquisition of wealth no longer the driving force in people's lives. That being said, I'm sure that there would be a lot of people who want to contribute towards society since they are really thankful for the great lives that they have.

But I'm sure that there would be some lazy people on earth who would do absolutely nothing and just sit around all day enjoying all of the pleasures 24th century earth would have to offer without giving anything back in return.

Do you think that for those people, while they would be allowed to be lazy, everyone else would look down upon them and shun them?

 

This is why the whole "no money" thing makes no sense. I can honestly say that if I didn't need money to make a living, I really wouldn't bother with a job. Hell, as it is, I literally work the bare minimum I need to get by and have stayed at the bottom of the career ladder for the past decade just to avoid more challenging work. And the truth of the matter is, there are lazier people out there, I once knew a guy whose career goal was to work enough until he could apply for welfare, and then live off that the rest of his life. And there are people who have done just that. In a society where there's no money and everything is provided from a replicator those who actually work would be a minority.

But that clearly isn't the case on Star Trek, so yeah I guess there would be some sort of propaganda machine in place encouraging people not to be sloths and to work their ass off despite nothing in return. Star Trek really is about space communism, isn't it?

 

I think most people are probably super lazy. We only see the people motivated to leave their house.

I mean, I imagine eventually having everything provided for you and living a life of complete and utter leisure would just get boring, which is why we build starships and go look for things.

 

You underestimate the power of social censure and sloth shaming.

 

There's actually a funny Cracked video I'm sure a lot of you have seen already that gets at this problem of boredom in the Star Trek universe (among other things, like Badmirals):

 

It's a question of the popularity of passive leisure vs. active leisure. In the 24th century if your hobby entails doing something like painting or fixing antiques or gardening or cooking, congratulations you are "working". It's only the passive consumers of media we would consider lazy. 24th century social engineering would seem to drive most to active pursuits. It doesn't matter if your craft beer doesn't make money, there is no money to make.

 

I imagine the 24th century of Trek has a very dark and depraved underbelly they keep from the galaxy at large.

If you think people living off of government handouts today (by which I mean those who don't have to) are a problem, imagine a world where those people have replicators and holodecks.

 

Ever see the Twilight Zone episode The Obsolete Man? That's what happened to all the lazy people.

 

My apologies for going offtopic here, but you piqued my curiosity. How does that work exactly? Do you build up certain rights to welfare when you've worked a number of years? In my country you're entitled to basic welfare as long as you can prove you have our nationality (or perhaps not even that and just residing in our country legally is sufficient) and no means of income otherwise (but welfare offices will certainly put you under heavy pressure to accept whatever work you can find).

 

Lazy people suffer transporter "accidents."

 

I think the appeal of it is that you could "work" without the need to make money in order to survive. For instance, I'd love to own and run a game/book/comic book shop. In a society where I have to make money in order to live, that is a tough thing to do successfully. In a society where there is no money and you can have a house and food given to you, it's completely doable.

 

I'm right there with you. If I didn't have to work, I sure wouldn't. I always joke that I should have been born into old money.

On the other hand, if I could pursue my interests (some of which could be construed as working) without the need to earn money, that's a whole different ballgame.

 

But what would the point be of a comic/game shop when you can replicate all of that for free? No one would buy anything at your shop as there is no money. At most it would be a place where people gather to talk about comics or play games so you would just maintain a social area for people to gather.

 

I don't think that's always the case. People still enjoy the novelty of real experiences. How is Sisko's Creole Kitchen still in business when everyone has a replicator in their house? Because it's just not the same.

Even now we see this. Why do people buy vinyl (of which sales are surpassing CDs now) when there's Spotify?

 

First I imagine restaurants exist because home made food tastes better than replicated food.

But how would a game not be the same if you replicated it your house versus a game store? Comics are already pretty digital, i imagine they would be holographic by that time.

Unless he wants to sell rare vintage comics but I can imagine there only being so many of those stores around due to limited supply. Now, how do you supply a value of a one of a kind Action Comics #1 with no money?

If a comic/game store existed I would imagine it would not be a store but just a meeting place to play games. The OP job would not be to sell the itmes but to run games and entertain people. Maybe sell food and drinks like a game cafe.

Anyway, the more you think of the details the more this whole concept of no money thing falls apart.

 

Maybe you're right. Perhaps my idea wouldn't work. I'll just stick to playing video games all day and eating replicated snacks. I suppose i could start a microbrewery so i could have beer with my snacks. No synthahol for me

 

Indeed, the problem with the post scarcity "no money" economy is that there are certain things that can't be made non-scarce. Beachfront property, there is only so much to go around. Antiques, by their nature cannot be replicated, you could get a replica but that defeats the purpose. Even services are limited, everybody can't go to the hot new restaurant at the same time. So there has to be some sort of medium of exchange for luxury goods. This must be the role of Federation Credits, and people pretend it's not money because "reasons".

 

Realistically, I think post-scarcity humanity with advanced technology would end up more like in Wall-E than ST:TNG.

Kor

 

I was thinking along the same lines this afternoon. Though I arrived at the idiocracy movie (humanity gets dumbed down to moronic level as no one ever has to 'stretch' himself).