Wealthier societies have fewer babies - it is likely that earth has a lower population in the 24th century than today. So the resources are less limited, and technology solves other scarcity issues. Everybody gets a Ferrari. Also, humans have settled other planets, so you could always just move to one of those.

Of course, it’s science fiction, not reality. We’ve seen how communism works in the real world, so I’m fairly skeptical of the Star Trek future. 350 years doesn’t seem like enough time to fix all the things wrong with our society.

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ulfw 8 hours ago | parent [-]

I get the 'everybody gets a Ferrari' argument because at the end of the day that's technically feasible. Just have robots built one after another. Can't get more egalitarian than everyone having the same car. Some people might have to wait but ok fine whatever.

The mansion overlooking the ocean is a real physical limit. There's only so much space, so many oceans or lakes or whatever someone wants available. Today certain billionaires by themselves (artifical) islands, their own beaches, etc etc.

In a world with utopian egalitarianism who gets the Miami beach villa and who gets the Flint, Michigan apartment?

	▲	rluna828 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		tl;dr1: There are many capitalist worlds, people with that tiger can go live there. There's no point to coming back to earth with your money because of taxes and regulations. tl;dr2: There are many M class planets with many coast lines and Earth is not seen as a place to retire because it's too loud. You probably can't see stars at night anywhere on earth. tl;dr3: for a market economy to work most people should be in that market. In star trek billions of people (including some of the most stylish and sexy) live outside that market economy. tl;dr4: traveling the stars >>>>> moldy beach villa you can't remodel because it's a landmark. There will be no city beach that's not covered in public housing. Any villa, including Piccard's villa will be a historical landmark. Answer: It's fun pretend. ex: Me earthling, I love art but Picassos cost trillions. I join starfleet and save a space princes. She gifts me a 20k year old cubist like painting. I display it in my eight room starfleet issued apartment on the 50th floor of a building in New Santa Monica. Art nerds from all over the sector come visit me. I have social status now and can get into clubs.