Fine, owning that house doesn’t necessarily mean they were rich, but I refuse to accept that they were depicted as being “poor” in any meaningful sense. It was a 4 bedroom, 2-bath home. The real life home was about 2000 square feet (although like most sitcoms it looked even bigger on the inside.) Back in 1988 when the show premiered the median home size was about 1700 square feet or so, and only about 65% of people owned a home at all. So if anything their living situation was average, if not slightly above average.
Nothing against that show, by the way! It was much closer to depicting “regular folks” than most. But if that’s the best example of a show whose protagonists are struggling with money then it just demonstrates how far sitcoms are from showing the reality that so many folks are facing.
People who live on a starship are still highly privileged in-world and officers doubly so. To the extent it is addressed most of the characters backstories are also from privileged upbringings. They certainly count as “upper middle class” even in a post-scarcity society. DS9 has a bit more variety here, they try to contrast Miles’ enlisted background with the career officers, and Sisko’s father is a restaurant owner which isn’t exactly lower class but also not someone whose was raised expecting to be an officer. Cassidy Yates is a freighter pilot, not a starship captain. Bajor definitely also gives us some more “working class” vibe, but still most of the recurring characters are religious leaders or former resistance leaders who are now political leaders.
It’s also not just about class in-world. The audience definitely does not live in a post scarcity world and writers would do well to remember that.
I didn’t say poor. I said working class. The distinction matters. It’s a class with a spectrum of economic status that even into the 80s, had a bit more mobility than today.
It comes out of a matter of agency. If it’s a space opera, the protagonist needs to own a spaceship. If it’s a political drama, the protagonist needs to have political power. If it’s a military story, if the protagonist is at least some kind of officer then they get a better view of the overall battle, versus being just a grunt. A cyberpunk story prefers the protag own at least a gun and a VR set. There are other stories than those, sure, but making the protagonist dirt-poor kinda limits you more than giving them some stuff.
Yeah, but I am thinking about Earth. IIRC everyone is doing pretty good. Some of the various colonies, however, are not. And not every other planet or faction is doing as well either.
I haven’t seen Picard, but I heard it is a little darker as well.
Sure. I would consider a star trek series where the main characters are from Earth and have no particular position of prestige or power to be “working class” even if they still had access to replicators and transporters and weren’t wondering how to pay the rent.
You think it would keep him safely contained for the rest of his life? Or would he just have it ghostwritten; taking credit for someone else’s accomplishments like usual.
Gully Foyle (in Alfred Bester’sThe Stars My Destination) may fill that requirement. It’s been decades since I last read it. I liked it and may give it another go.
Very nice Craftsman style features. That could very easily be inhabited by a middle-class fam in say Kew Gardens, Queens, NY… but handed down over a couple of generations. A (now) $1M home owned by a middle-class family. Definitely not unheard of — especially in Greater New York.
Yeah, that’s a good example. I actually enjoyed Heinlein before I had my universe expanded. I don’t really need (or want) to read anymore. If nothing else, it’s hard to not see the huge swaths of racism, sexism, and classist BS. No thanks.
Musk is the son of an extremely wealthy man who managed to obtain significantly more wealth. And has people who seem religiously devoted to him. Fairly sure that’s where the similarities between him and Paul Atreides end, though.
The distinction matters. It’s a class with a spectrum of economic status that even into the 80s, had a bit more mobility than today.
