Interesting Q & A found on Quora.com regarding the above question:
Its been many years since Star Trek: The Next Generation came and went, but way, waaaay back in 1987 when the very first episode of it appeared and the concept of a “Holodeck” was revealed (a neat digression: What came first, the Holodeck or the X-Men’s Danger Room?), for the first time I, a HUGE fan of the original Star Trek series, found myself questioning the whole concept of Star Trek’s society’s viability.
The question linked to at the top, whether the Star Trek economy is essentially a welfare state, is a –ahem– logical one to consider. If this society has moved beyond the use of money and all your survival needs are given to you for free (food, lodging, medical care, etc.) then one wonders: Wouldn’t that result in a society of worthless, useless beings who sit around all day playing their music or video games or movies, etc., while doing nothing else that is worthwhile?
And if you add to this society a Holodeck, essentially the ultimate “mind” playground where you immerse yourself into your own movie/video game/wish fulfillment arena, then whatever could make you want to leave it?
These questions have stayed with me for a while. So much so I wrote a short story called “Virtual” a few years back (shameless plug: it can be found in my Shadows at Dawn short story collection) that tackled the issue of getting so involved in a virtual world that you don’t want to face the real one. The key to making this scenario/story work for me was this line:
The virtual world could go on, but only when paid for with real world cash.
The author of the first link states that a Star Trek society could work and isn’t a “welfare one” in the classic sense. But I suspect that it is one that couldn’t work. Mind you, I’m not an Ayn Randian proponent, but I do feel that you have to have a motivation to progress.
Whether you’re literally or figuratively hungry to improve yourself in some way, to find a reward for your actions/work, whether they be monetary solely to keep your alive or more figurative in the sense that you wish to create some work that might be admired by others, money rewards be damned, there has to be some kind of motivation.
And I’m afraid the universe of Star Trek, at least as presented starting with Star Trek: The Next Generation, lacks that concept. In my mind, every one of the adventures presented in all the series could well be on set on a Holodeck, and the entire human race never bothered to leave their living rooms.