Dealing with most customers can be fun if you’re not overworked etc… People volunteer for those roles at community events and have a good time. People open cafés and restaurants because they want to (if you just want to own a small business, they’re far from the best kind to start). It’s the stuff that you’d hope would go away in Star Trek, like entitled customers and not being able to live comfortably between shifts or stop when you don’t want to continue where the unpleasantness comes from.
Sorry but waiting tables (Sisko’s dad probably had waitstaff, as well as dishwashers, probably a hostess to handle the front of house…) is not a job you’d do for very long because “its fun”. they’re doing it because they’re being compensated for it.
Same goes for baristas. I might enjoy making an espresso when friends and family come over, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be fun to make 300 drinks a day; for no compensation, just because some star fleet engineers need their morning joe and can’t get it from a replimat.
Humans are social creatures. We like to feel useful and connect with others. In a world with a replicator in every home, dining out is much more about the social experience than the food. Working in a restaurant would be about community and shared interest. People would volunteer to staff them for the same reason people do any form of volunteer work: they enjoy the sense of purpose, skill-sharing, and camaraderie that comes with it. Plus, with replicators making preparation and cleanup trivial, there’s a lot less labor associated with food service.
Lastly, consider that post-scarcity dining establishments that would have no tolerance for rude customers. If someone went full Karen on a volunteer, they’d be banned in a hot second. The social dynamics of such an arrangement would entirely favor the staff: if there are no “paying customers” then there’s no entitlement to go with it.
I don’t find it all that difficult to envision a set of social incentives that would keep restaurants alive.
This topic came up quite a bit on r/daystrominstitute and there was a generally accepted head canon, at least for me.
The people bussing tables and waiting on customers are there because they’re genuinely learning a trade. Maybe theyre interested in opening a restaurant in the future. In order to do so they need to learn the full ins and outs of how they operate, starting from what is considered the menial tasks of cleaning dishes. I’m sure Joseph Sisko didn’t wake up one morning living in a post-scarcity society, decided he wants to open a creol restaurant, and just walked down to an empty building and started cooking for customers the next day
See, that sort of works, but there’d still be a chronic shortage. Once they leave, you’d now probably double the demand for staff.
My personal head cannon is that Picard (and everyone else,) is full of it. Same way people screaming about how great America is are full of it. He was saying what was necessary to keep his timeline from being borg-ified.
Or like the guy that was thawed out. That totally sounds like a party line.
But this makes sense since we also know that Picard loves to spout nonsense propaganda about the enterprise not being a warship, star fleet not being a military organization, and the federation being totally peaceful. Except all the battles with the romulans, the Klingons. The borg. The dominion. The cardassians… I’m sure I’m missing a few…
Could be that startrek uses a more realistic version of UBI. Everyone is provided enough for a house, healthcare, a few basic luxuries and a hobby, but if you want more than that (say money for an expensive hobby or to go on vacation to the party planet ragealon 6) you gotta work.
Are you guys intentionally ignoring replicators? You don’t need money. You could replicate a whole ship if you wanted to. Your house would be replicated. Same with any hobbies or luxuries, which wouldn’t be luxuries because there is no such thing in post scarcity, you’d just replicate what you want.
Everyone in the Trek universe just does things if they like to do it. Some people like serving people. Other people like to pilot ships. I’m sure the more desirable jobs are more competitive but the only incentives are really going to be the value others see in your work. So someone like Sisko the Elder has people who work for him because they know he is a renowned chef and they want to absorb his knowledge.
Dealing with most customers can be fun if you’re not overworked etc… People volunteer for those roles at community events and have a good time. People open cafés and restaurants because they want to (if you just want to own a small business, they’re far from the best kind to start). It’s the stuff that you’d hope would go away in Star Trek, like entitled customers and not being able to live comfortably between shifts or stop when you don’t want to continue where the unpleasantness comes from.
Sorry but waiting tables (Sisko’s dad probably had waitstaff, as well as dishwashers, probably a hostess to handle the front of house…) is not a job you’d do for very long because “its fun”. they’re doing it because they’re being compensated for it.
Same goes for baristas. I might enjoy making an espresso when friends and family come over, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be fun to make 300 drinks a day; for no compensation, just because some star fleet engineers need their morning joe and can’t get it from a replimat.
Eh. I can see it working.
Humans are social creatures. We like to feel useful and connect with others. In a world with a replicator in every home, dining out is much more about the social experience than the food. Working in a restaurant would be about community and shared interest. People would volunteer to staff them for the same reason people do any form of volunteer work: they enjoy the sense of purpose, skill-sharing, and camaraderie that comes with it. Plus, with replicators making preparation and cleanup trivial, there’s a lot less labor associated with food service.
Lastly, consider that post-scarcity dining establishments that would have no tolerance for rude customers. If someone went full Karen on a volunteer, they’d be banned in a hot second. The social dynamics of such an arrangement would entirely favor the staff: if there are no “paying customers” then there’s no entitlement to go with it.
I don’t find it all that difficult to envision a set of social incentives that would keep restaurants alive.
This topic came up quite a bit on r/daystrominstitute and there was a generally accepted head canon, at least for me.
The people bussing tables and waiting on customers are there because they’re genuinely learning a trade. Maybe theyre interested in opening a restaurant in the future. In order to do so they need to learn the full ins and outs of how they operate, starting from what is considered the menial tasks of cleaning dishes. I’m sure Joseph Sisko didn’t wake up one morning living in a post-scarcity society, decided he wants to open a creol restaurant, and just walked down to an empty building and started cooking for customers the next day
See, that sort of works, but there’d still be a chronic shortage. Once they leave, you’d now probably double the demand for staff.
My personal head cannon is that Picard (and everyone else,) is full of it. Same way people screaming about how great America is are full of it. He was saying what was necessary to keep his timeline from being borg-ified.
Or like the guy that was thawed out. That totally sounds like a party line.
But this makes sense since we also know that Picard loves to spout nonsense propaganda about the enterprise not being a warship, star fleet not being a military organization, and the federation being totally peaceful. Except all the battles with the romulans, the Klingons. The borg. The dominion. The cardassians… I’m sure I’m missing a few…
Could be that startrek uses a more realistic version of UBI. Everyone is provided enough for a house, healthcare, a few basic luxuries and a hobby, but if you want more than that (say money for an expensive hobby or to go on vacation to the party planet ragealon 6) you gotta work.
Are you guys intentionally ignoring replicators? You don’t need money. You could replicate a whole ship if you wanted to. Your house would be replicated. Same with any hobbies or luxuries, which wouldn’t be luxuries because there is no such thing in post scarcity, you’d just replicate what you want.
Everyone in the Trek universe just does things if they like to do it. Some people like serving people. Other people like to pilot ships. I’m sure the more desirable jobs are more competitive but the only incentives are really going to be the value others see in your work. So someone like Sisko the Elder has people who work for him because they know he is a renowned chef and they want to absorb his knowledge.
I thought Risa was the party planet?
Fuck it. Throw the whole table into the reclaimator and replicate new clean ones.
I was thinking just integrate them into the table. The entire surface gets cleaned.
Yeah I mean, people need to think more Star Teck-y. Transporter room, one dinner wreck to beam out. Done. Wipes Hands.
I don’t remember that scene of I Robot…
Bc in that show, the Men were In White.
Guinan had an answer for those at least!