Comments on: Star Trek’s Greatest ‘Labor’ Episodes

By: Izbot

Izbot — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:05:17 +0000

Um, what about the TNG episode “Disaster”? Keiko was in labor in that one…

By: The Underpants Monster

The Underpants Monster — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:47:48 +0000

“but we never saw TNG officers visiting holo-brothels!”

So, what do you think Riker meant when he told the Bridge that if anybody needed him he’d be on the holodeck, after Kamala got him all hot and bothered in “The Perfect Mate?” I doubt he was going for a virtual cold shower! ;-)

By: Highway Joe

Highway Joe — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:48:04 +0000

#29
I can’t say whether the NEA was nuked or not, but it’s music branch obviously survived. There’s at least 5-6 instances of Enterprise crew members giving Classical music recitals at Ten Forward. And, really, can you see Fine Arts, Graphic Design, Music or Literature students/practinioners rushing to join Starfleet Academy?

#33
I think the lack of holo-brothels had more to do with TV censors and sensibilities/requirements than their absolute non-existense. In ST:TNG’s “Offspring” we see two teenagers kissing, and Guinan tells Lal, more or less, that they’re leaving the bar so that they can be intimate in a more, ah, private manner. There’s also ST:TNG’s “The Outrageous Okona,” where sex is clearly implied between Okona and female members of the crew. So it was there… [Picard says, "Not now!" to Beverly in "Naked Time," after all, not "Not ever!"] it just couldn’t be as overt as it can be nowadays [see ST: Enterprise].

By: Dom

Dom — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:33:18 +0000

Yeah, but we all know anyone sensible would use the holodecks to have sex several times a day, but we never saw TNG officers visiting holo-brothels! The utopian view of TNG humans just doesn’t add up, I’m afraid!

By: MrRegular

MrRegular — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:37:10 +0000

It’s not out of the question to end homelessness, unemployment, hunger, lack of health care, etc. The problem becomes convincing enough people that doing so would not be “communism” or some other nonsense.

By: The Underpants Monster

The Underpants Monster — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:17:10 +0000

The point isn’t in the details of currency and distribution. I think we can safely assume that creative people are remunerated for their labor in some way we really don’t need to understand the petty details of for the story to work.

The point is, that in a society where there’s no longer competition for basic survival needs, the motivation for acquisition simply as a sign of status – the “most toys” mentality – is removed. People still acquire goods and services that, to paraphrase William Morris, they know to be useful or believe to be beautiful, but not to define their self-worth. Since it’s within anyone’s reach to attain the things they need by the fruits of their labor, the ability to attain in and of itself is no longer a sign that a man is superior in some way to his neighbor.

The details of the system by which goods and services are exchanged is so far beside the point you can’t even bring them together by crossing your eyes.

By: hubertis bigend

hubertis bigend — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:51:18 +0000

#29
hear hear. artists were usually elite cloud dwellers. and data’s paintings sucked. the NEA was nuked in the eugenics wars, never to be heard from again.

By: Dom

Dom — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:59:10 +0000

Sorry, but even a bartering-based economy is ultimately going to lead to IOUs and therefore money. And who cares about a couple of wars on Earth? Why would the Klingons, Romulans or Fereng change their ways?

Clearly the concept of a no-money economy in the Federation is, even by TNG standards, the worst kind of ’80s middle class Californian hippie-dippie garbage.

If the Cold War hadn’t ended, no sane person in the West would have given this nonsense a second thought! The insane ones would have gone to live in the Soviet Union! Unfortunately, too many of them are weilding power in our everyday society!! :p

All I can say is, what would happen to all the singers, artists and random outsiders who don’t fit in, who need to make money to live? Judging by their absence in TNG, they were probably routinely taken behind a barn and shot!

In economic terms, Star Trek TNG = the bridge between TOS and Blake’s 7!

By: BK613

BK613 — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:08:17 +0000

25
My take on that statement is that rampant consumerism is what the 23rd/24th centuries are really devoid of. No push by “suits” to develop the next Big Thing in order to feed the corporate coffers. No steady stream of junk to make the opiated masses feel elitist or cool, junk that will be passe in five years (if not sooner.) And no inequality based on the collection of that junk.

Of course in the ST universe, that has been accomplished primarily through technology.

By: the king in shreds and tatters

the king in shreds and tatters — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:06:16 +0000

Just because it’s a post-monetary economy doesn’t mean it’s a post-economy economy. The Third World War probably blew the basis for anything but a barter economy to hell–at the very least, the current international economy was wiped out–and the guys who showed up to help reconstruct it are a bunch of hyper-rationalists. The Vulcans have no reason to *not* maintain a planned economy. Combine a clean slate with economy theories coming from a completely new civilisation with an alien history *and* suddenly your commune or libertarian enclave or anarchist operation can move to a new, self-contained world, and who the hell knows how it will affect the distribution of labour and goods? At the very least, we’ll have the opportunity to experiment a lot more than we can now–instead of thousands of years of economy history bearing down on every slice of bread.