Member-only story
Manifest Destiny and Star Trek
The other day, I was thinking about the Star Trek economy. We know in the realm of the Federation of Planets money does not exist. By the time we’re in the TNG era replicators can produce practically any material good or food you might like. Although we’ve never seen it done in the context of the TV shows or movies, replicators are used in home construction, starship construction, and elsewhere. We know some cooks use replicators to make the raw ingredients for their meals and then prepare the meal by hand. Others replicate the entire meal. Clothing comes from replicators. On Earth, and presumably elsewhere in the Federation, planetside travel is frequently done by transporter. It’s possible to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner in 3 different cities around the globe. By the TNG era, a person works because they want to, not because they have to.
In a world in which struggling to obtain resources isn’t the primary motivation, one resource is in perpetual short supply, land. A replicator can’t make more land. Sure, you can have floating cities, underground cities, underwater cities, and even flying cities, but the space one has in which to live is finite unless you travel to other planets. So how do property rights work in the Star Trek universe?
I’m going to assume the government doesn’t tell you where to live. At no time do we get the suggestion the Federation is a…
