Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to No Right or Left?

re: No Right or Left?

The Star Trek universe seemed to survive quite well without anyone actually having to work for a living, only scientists and military people seemed to get into space. With replicator technology capable of making any product, and transporters able to move it, and high automation, this is not too unreasonable. I certainly don't recall any of the Klingons having a job. With very few exceptions, even merchants seemed fairly scarce (Harry Mudd is the only one I can think of, and he was somewhat disreputable).

The only exception I can think of in the later versions were the Ferengi, and I recall reading somewhere that they were a satire on businessmen, particularly those who do business overseas. Whether that's a fair assessment or not I don't know, but I do know that "Ferengi" is the medieval Arabic word for "Franks", or the generic term they used for all western Europeans in Crusade times.

Whether any society can survive without anyone working unless they want to is a very interesting question, which Star Trek avoided by keeping all the action far away from earth. If no one HAS to work, then no one need be boss either. That pretty much takes care of capitalism or any other form of organizing principle for labor and management. The only organizations I can think of today which are populated solely by volunteers are some charities, and at some level they become salaried.

Enterprise was run on classic military chain-of-command structures, and even in the show it was often implied that Star Fleet was a rather cumbersome bureaucracy. If Kirk was a Neocon, he had a lot in common with many of today's Neocons. He worked for a non-profit government agency.

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