I keep seeing this "meme" - the "Star Trek Eutopia" vs. the massive inequality ("Elysium" being the usual fictional example). What's interesting is that this a

I keep seeing this "meme" - the "Star Trek Eutopia" vs. the massive inequality ("Elysium" being the usual fictional example). What's interesting is that this argument ignores the "apocalyptic" scenarios I see in other contexts. They typically revolve around increasing scarcity, societal collapse due to depleted resources, etc. They overlap only in one place; I've seen one "apocalyptic' one that argued the stratification of society means that collapse will occur because the rich/powerful are isolated from feeling the effects of the scarcity until it's too late. But regardless; we can't have both - one where the earth's resources are depleted, and another where the bounty is so great everyone can enjoy a middle class standard of living, often without economically useful employment.