What society and government is in Star Trek? originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Answer by Dan Holliday, Avid Star Trek Fan, on Quora:
The United Federation of Planets in Star Trek is mostly libertarian-socialist, post-scarcity economy. These may seem antithetical, but they’re not. Socialism in its only true idealistic form comes about in a post-scarcity economy where the means of production are effectively limitless with no financial consequences (in fact, there are no finances at all). Because the Federation has matter-energy replication, they can make the essential stuff of life essentially for free.
Think about that for a moment. Whether we’re discussing total automation of the economy and sub-micro engineering that makes anything and everything from the push of a button or a matter-energy converter that can sequence any form of matter we want, the net result is the same. If you need it, you push a button and it appears. This is the reality in Star Trek.
Our entire economy, indeed, our entire way of life including conflict, all come about because of limited resources. One person has too much. One person has too little. One nation has all of X resource (Hydraulic Despotism) and uses it to manipulate other nations. All of this comes about because of finite resources. (Which ultimately negates war in the Trek universe — but whatever)
Because there is no scarcity, there is no conflict at least inside of the United Federation of Planets. Additionally, because medicine and psychology have advanced to the point where essentially, they’ve reverse engineered the brain and body, any defect is identified in utero and corrected (including genetic psychological disorders). Any illnesses (mental or physical) are identified in childhood and addressed (i.e. mental illnesses, etc.). So crime is non-existent.
Most of government today exists because:
- A need to protect the nation from invasion.
- A need to dispense finite resources to prevent poverty and internal upheaval.
- A need to police property from criminals.
- A need to regulate the exchange of goods and services.
Remove all of those from daily life on Earth (amongst dozens of other planets) and what you get is essentially no government except the barest minimum — libertarianism. There’s no real “economics” because nothing is scarce. Maybe you have a really rare pair of 19th Century glasses that your best friend gave you for your birthday and those cannot be replicated (still … you broke the fucking lenses you klutz!) and maybe there’s some credit system to regulate the exchange of discrete items that cannot be replicated. But it’s not like you’re ever going to go without a house, food, medicine, education or freedom.
That’s life in the UFP.
This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions: