Trekonomics: The Economics of Star Trek

A clever exploration of quite possibly the most fantastical aspect of Trek: post-scarcity.

There are two big takeaways for me:

1. A future without poverty necessarily transforms the mindset of Federation citizens. It's the reason why Starfleet officers are unbelievably perfect: growing up without the toxic stress of material instability leads to even humans who are so alien to contemporary norms. The profit motive, price signal and so on are just irrelevant.
2. The Ferengi are us. They're 20-21st century humanity struggling to understand how any society could function without a reliance on capitalism.

My only minor quibble is that I think the back-half of the book is a bit more crunchy than the first. Saadia does a great job when addressing the economic concepts within the TNG/DS9 frameworks. Given the target audience, I wish he did more of that and less background work on explaining Trek conventions to the reader. How many normies are really going to bother picking up what's essentially a love-letter to policy oriented Trek fans?

The author had quite a few inciteful things to say about the economics of star trek and what it means in relation to the real world. I enjoyed the comparisons. The authors extensive background in economics really helps ground science fiction ideals in real world theory. I would recommend this to anyone who thinks deeply about star trek and the lessons we can gleam from the show to aspire to recreate in the world we live in.

I'm not convinced this man is actually a fan of Star Trek. Most of the economic discussion is rudimentary. Most of the analysis is either personal diatribes or weird rabbit holes into other science fiction works. It gets preachy and pessimistic and doesn't seem to host any actual desire to engage with the signature optimism of Star Trek.