Maybe there's some system of kudos that isn't addressed in canon. Like in The Algebraist. Working as a bus boy ups your rep and makes it more likely you get to

Maybe there's some system of kudos that isn't addressed in canon. Like in The Algebraist. Working as a bus boy ups your rep and makes it more likely you get to run a restaurant or viewed highly. Perhaps there's a large contingent of "NEETs" that just hang out in holodecks all day. But society frowns on that and encourages doing _something_. Perhaps there's lots of places with robo bus boys, but it's far more prestigious Also, at one point, there's mention of "teleporter credits" as an explanation of why going off to academy caused homesickness -- couldn't teleport on demand. Even in the Culture, citizens had to show their capability quite a bit to design a part of an orbital. They couldn't even get their own ships on demand. Trademark enforcement would probably be one of the things kept in a post scarcity society, if there was any system of reputation left! Being an X(TM) athlete comes with prestige so you wouldn't want someone else to be able to endow that prestige at will.