Its not a free market if everything is free?
As a critique of Communism I think this is a bit lazy but as a critique of Star Trek its mostly amusing, anyway to be serious for a second I'll add some comments.
http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/Trek-Marxism.html
1. The economy in the (23rd and 24th century) Federation, such as it is, is a post-scarcity one. Everything is free and in abundance, except for personal space travel, land and antiques (last two almost by definition)
2. Surely the "right" to own a starship also gives you the right to crash it into the Moon? This is the "property is theft" argument-because having legal right to something that others can use (especially if one cannot by definition make full use of it) gives one the right to create scarcity. Anyway, you'd need a crew etc.
3. The author does have a point about personal starships as travel between planets/solar systems is NOT free in the Federation unlike all other goods and services. Presumably this is why occupation/invasion of a volume of space is actually an issue in a space faring society; not because of the potential strengths in terms of manpower or technology of any homogenising power (like the Romulan Star Empire or the Dominion) but because the legal/corporate entities that already restrict travel would be the one's surrendering (their citizen's right to travel/escape) to any invader/homogeniser.
4. Title point, I take it a free market means you have to pay for things, so,presumably, if one wants to create a "free market" one has to create scarcities.
5. The humans in Star Trek aren't actually that promiscuous, marriage and family do exist. Anyway, so what? (and why is it OK for Kirk?)
6. Is it prostitution (Risa) if it is given away for free?
7. Again, why are the Right so obsessed with free love? Does it somehow contradict capital or the state, or do they just want everyone to be miserable so they go out and work crap jobs to buy crap goods?
8. Fair point about the patriarchal nature, though he reckons the family is half way to being abolished so he's just contradicting himself, and anyway capitalist states have massive militaries so they have standing armies to shoot workers in a crisis and an officer corps to provide jobs for useless members of the upper classes.
9. Gold Standard/Latinum-yes they are heavy, take up volume etc but "modern" money isn't actually worth anything, hence inflation dummy.
10. Right about the work ethic, this is one thing I find uncomfortable about ST. I've wondered if in reality they'd put the workless or homeless into prison (or mental hospitals, this appears happen in the Future Earth of Babylon 5)
11. Also, why is everyone so smart? Did they kill off all the stupid people, or just make them do crummy jobs? (my personal feelings notwithstanding about the stupifying nature of "modern" schools and society in general)
12. Oil would have run out by then, dummy.
13. Actually, the Federation in Kirk's time does have the infrastructure to feed all its citizens, and with the minimum of labour: robot starships exist which can carry hundreds of tonnes of real food from agricultural colonies, which themselves are almost entirely automated. So there!
14. "Privately owned corporations" is a contradiction in terms, except in that a corporation is a legal entity in itself (often having more rights than real people as not everyone has the right to live and work anywhere they like while corporations can relocate anywhere), they depend on legalistic structures.
15. Is it right to withhold secrets? People gain through recognition of their work, whether they are paid for it is irrelevant.
16. I would say it is the state which allows, creates and maintains class divisions. Eliminate the state....
17. I wonder whether the only "real" free market is the black one (agorists would say so), so maybe the old Soviet Union had the only real free market? Food for thought.
18. The real problem with the Federation is that the only democracy present is representative democracy. Crew aboard starships do not elect their officers and there are no Worker's Councils organising construction, just the command economy.
As a critique of Communism I think this is a bit lazy but as a critique of Star Trek its mostly amusing, anyway to be serious for a second I'll add some comments.
http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/Trek-Marxism.html
1. The economy in the (23rd and 24th century) Federation, such as it is, is a post-scarcity one. Everything is free and in abundance, except for personal space travel, land and antiques (last two almost by definition)
2. Surely the "right" to own a starship also gives you the right to crash it into the Moon? This is the "property is theft" argument-because having legal right to something that others can use (especially if one cannot by definition make full use of it) gives one the right to create scarcity. Anyway, you'd need a crew etc.
3. The author does have a point about personal starships as travel between planets/solar systems is NOT free in the Federation unlike all other goods and services. Presumably this is why occupation/invasion of a volume of space is actually an issue in a space faring society; not because of the potential strengths in terms of manpower or technology of any homogenising power (like the Romulan Star Empire or the Dominion) but because the legal/corporate entities that already restrict travel would be the one's surrendering (their citizen's right to travel/escape) to any invader/homogeniser.
4. Title point, I take it a free market means you have to pay for things, so,presumably, if one wants to create a "free market" one has to create scarcities.
5. The humans in Star Trek aren't actually that promiscuous, marriage and family do exist. Anyway, so what? (and why is it OK for Kirk?)
6. Is it prostitution (Risa) if it is given away for free?
7. Again, why are the Right so obsessed with free love? Does it somehow contradict capital or the state, or do they just want everyone to be miserable so they go out and work crap jobs to buy crap goods?
8. Fair point about the patriarchal nature, though he reckons the family is half way to being abolished so he's just contradicting himself, and anyway capitalist states have massive militaries so they have standing armies to shoot workers in a crisis and an officer corps to provide jobs for useless members of the upper classes.
9. Gold Standard/Latinum-yes they are heavy, take up volume etc but "modern" money isn't actually worth anything, hence inflation dummy.
10. Right about the work ethic, this is one thing I find uncomfortable about ST. I've wondered if in reality they'd put the workless or homeless into prison (or mental hospitals, this appears happen in the Future Earth of Babylon 5)
11. Also, why is everyone so smart? Did they kill off all the stupid people, or just make them do crummy jobs? (my personal feelings notwithstanding about the stupifying nature of "modern" schools and society in general)
12. Oil would have run out by then, dummy.
13. Actually, the Federation in Kirk's time does have the infrastructure to feed all its citizens, and with the minimum of labour: robot starships exist which can carry hundreds of tonnes of real food from agricultural colonies, which themselves are almost entirely automated. So there!
14. "Privately owned corporations" is a contradiction in terms, except in that a corporation is a legal entity in itself (often having more rights than real people as not everyone has the right to live and work anywhere they like while corporations can relocate anywhere), they depend on legalistic structures.
15. Is it right to withhold secrets? People gain through recognition of their work, whether they are paid for it is irrelevant.
16. I would say it is the state which allows, creates and maintains class divisions. Eliminate the state....
17. I wonder whether the only "real" free market is the black one (agorists would say so), so maybe the old Soviet Union had the only real free market? Food for thought.
18. The real problem with the Federation is that the only democracy present is representative democracy. Crew aboard starships do not elect their officers and there are no Worker's Councils organising construction, just the command economy.
posted by Legal Smeagol at 2:29 PM
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