re: #68 No Malarkey!

OTOH, technology enabling fewer people to produce more has, over the course of the industrial revolution, made everyone wealthier, and more people are employed than ever. If we ever get to the point than technology can produce anything we want just by asking for it (tea, earl grey), I hope we can achieve a Star Trek caliber egalitarian society without a bloody civil war in getting there. Before then, we still need technology assisted productivity gains so that incomes can continue to rise.

Star Trek is set in a very thinly-populated universe. How it got that thin is our mid-range future.