Most of us in America, even those considered "poor," live in incredible luxury, born of technology and freedom, that would not have even been imaginable three hundred years ago. Most of us don't notice it any more than a fish notices being wet.

My drinking water comes out of a wall. I can talk to anyone on the planet in seconds. Traveling to the other side of the world is almost routine. I am never dangerously cold or hot. It is unusual and tragic for children to die. It is almost impossible to starve to death, and damn few people are even really hungry. I don't have to worry about someone coming into my town and hauling my family off as slaves.

I wish this were true everywhere on the planet. I think it could be.

It is not unreasonable to assume that three hundred years from now, people will have and do things I can't even imagine, and will have luxuries we don't even dream about. Star Trek is not realistic. In three hundred years, our decendants will be doing and saying things that would make no sense whatsoever to us. Even now, many of the words and concepts I use in everyday life would be gibberish to an English-speaking American of 1790. Heck, a lot of the things we deal with would have been gibberish to someone in 1960. Star Trek on TV is really 20th century people with very slightly fancier gadgets. Hell, I already carry a communicator in my pocket that flips open, and it's barely the 21st century.

Like I said, I don't think the people who wrote Star Trek, especially TNG, had a clear idea about how markets work. I bet they really don't KNOW how one would pay for something like the Enterprise. It has to cost something to build it, otherwise it would be just as easy to make two million of them. Star Fleet personnel get paid, too, and I see them spend money.

The Ferengi got a bad rap. I wish I could have written shows for them. They did evolve away from two-dimensional bad guys later in the series, like the Klingons did, but still...

It's worth noting that the Ferengi did not have wars among themselves.