Maybe Socialism works after all…  As you've all probably guessed by now, I'm a Star Trek geek amongst my myriad fandoms. But up until now, there's been one aspect of Star Trek that I have shaken my head at, thinking it was too unrealistic. Well, OK, besides the transporters, warp speed space travel, and Kirk is getting lucky with all those green-skinned space babes.    Beyond the advanced technology, which justifiably may or may not happen someday - never say never! - the one aspect of the Star Trek universe that always nagged at me is the economy of Starfleet. See, thanks to technology like the replicator, humans in this future exist in a post-scarcity utopia, wanting for nothing, and hence not motivated by money. So why work? Libertarian Capitalists have seizures at this thought.  The answer, we get explained to us, is that Starfleet members are all volunteers, just motivated to join for the pure idealism. Which is the part that loses me when I think of all those red-shirts who beamed down…