Naw man, those folks in 10 forward that were waiters graduated number 1 in replicator hospitality school, and are out there hustling for the chance at head bartender, Galaxy class.
I see them as civilians who wanted to travel on a galaxy class starship without having to be technically qualified
They probably are. But since replicators have to be programmed, they also could be badass digital mixologists and chefs.
Which is why she was repeatedly asked, "why are you here?" And she had some mystical "this is where I had to be/was needed" answer. And that is kind of how El-Aurians are.
right meaning starfleet and the enterprise are the most important places in the universe. So how is pickard or Kirk not the ruling class? When they send diplomatic missions they send star fleet most of the time. Not the president
Motivation compared to what? Creating more wealth? That's immaterial when there is no need for wealth.
Simply because the Airforce flies the President to places, doesn't make the Airforce the ruling class. Just the best way to transport him.
Who says it’s bad? The point is to make Star Trek realistic and believable they had to keep some sort have and have nots and also make humans fallible and not perfect which goes against Roddenberry’s whole premise.
How is someone doing what they want to do, and doing it well, a "have not?" I don't believe that perfection or fallibility is the premise, and not sure how you see that either.
If they aren't devoting themselves to the determinant of society, then, it doesn't matter. And again, this is how they perform in OUR society, in which not everyone is like them, and is not a reflection of how they'd be in a society where everyone is like them. Being the best at whatever it is they chose to do will benefit society, and not everyone will choose to be layabouts. So as long as it isn't detrimental, society will still advance.
it's amazing how people can watch science fiction but keep interpreting everything as only possibly being one way
read any book on the making of Star Trek. Any negative human character was fought tooth and nail by Roddenberry. His belief was that in the future humans all were united in doing things for the greater good and unmotivated by other things. We had evolved beyond all those things. Which made it extremely hard to write stories when your main characters were infallible and Christ like. So any time a writer wanted a fallible character they made it an alien.
Not everyone will chose to do nothing, but a lot of people will. What percentage of people quit their job when they win the lottery? I’m sure it’s a majority.