A few weeks ago it occurred to me why this country is presently so screwed-up financially:

From top to bottom, we have been trying to hack it on a Star Trek economy… without the requisite Star Trek technology needed to make it work.

Gene Roddenberry had funny ideas about money in his Star Trek universe. Namely, that the United Federation of Planets, including Earth, didn’t use it. It was an ideal socialist state that based its economy on the pursuit of excellence, for the betterment of self and society. Remember how Kirk and Spock had to sell the spectacles in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ‘cuz they were cash-strapped in San Francisco circa 1986? And then later in the same movie, Kirk admitted to Gillian that they didn’t have money in his own time.

The concept got fleshed-out a bit more (interestingly after Roddenberry’s passing in 1991): the ...