Yeah, I have to wonder about how that "don't have to work" thing pans out. You mean, I can CHOOSE to either risk life and limb as a Red Shirt, possibly getting vaporized by the Alien Encounter of the Week in order to make a point, *OR* I could play video games all day in a world where the tech level allows for HOLODECKS?! Because I don't even have to drag myself out to go to work? Wow. How DOESN'T civilization come to a screeching halt? ;)
But then, we get to Deep Space Nine and it seems like some of the writers didn't get the memo. Why, there's this valuable stuff called latinum (which I'll guess just CANNOT be replicated, or it wouldn't be valuable anymore). And someone says "put it on my tab" in a bar. And there's gambling. And ... well, basically just other stuff that seems to suggest that there's some sort of economy, and just because you're from the Federation doesn't mean you've got an endless money supply. Perhaps there's some way to explain or regulate that, but I never got the sense that the writers put the least bit of thought into it. Over in TNG, we've got our smug heroes boasting that MONEY is a thing of the past, and yet ... surely there's some sort of *rationing* that happens? And what if someone, for instance, decides to TRADE his allotted holodeck time with some other crewmember in exchange for something else? Whatever is rare or in limited quantity might in effect become a new currency in the absence of anything else.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-06-26 11:48 am (UTC)But then, we get to Deep Space Nine and it seems like some of the writers didn't get the memo. Why, there's this valuable stuff called latinum (which I'll guess just CANNOT be replicated, or it wouldn't be valuable anymore). And someone says "put it on my tab" in a bar. And there's gambling. And ... well, basically just other stuff that seems to suggest that there's some sort of economy, and just because you're from the Federation doesn't mean you've got an endless money supply. Perhaps there's some way to explain or regulate that, but I never got the sense that the writers put the least bit of thought into it. Over in TNG, we've got our smug heroes boasting that MONEY is a thing of the past, and yet ... surely there's some sort of *rationing* that happens? And what if someone, for instance, decides to TRADE his allotted holodeck time with some other crewmember in exchange for something else? Whatever is rare or in limited quantity might in effect become a new currency in the absence of anything else.