But would just every random human have access to a replicator 24/7?

They’re cheap and easy devices. Almost every living space on a starship has one, as does every colony. The Enterprise originally shows up to deliver and install a batch of replicators for an entire colony in “The Survivors”.

Like, that would be a tally in the Utopia column, but even then, the amount of waste and trash produced would be a problem.

Not really. Replicators are two-way devices. If you don’t want something any more, you put it back, and it’ll convert it the other way.

If you were ever worried about rubbish, you could plonk a replicator down, and just use it as an infinite hole to throw your rubbish into, until it went down to a desirable level.

Even in an absolutely ideal situation like that, it would end like The Good Place where getting anything you want burns out your dopamine system.

You have that, but unlike in The Good Place, it’s not forced. You can spend all your time having fun, but eventually you would get bored, and want a challenge, and there are a great many challenges, between colonisation, and scientific achievements. There’s no Janet to ask for all the answers.

There’s also a social element. Culturally, the Federation values authenticity. Going to Vulcan to see a sunset is more value than seeing a hologram of a Vulcan sunset, much like how a photograph today means less than going to the same location it was taken, and seeing it for yourself.

Like I said I’m not a Star Trek expert, I just don’t trust a bunch of rich people working for the one world government telling us the 99.99% of humans we never see are living perfect lives.

It’s funny you say that, since they did abolish financial wealth in Star Trek, since at least the second show, for humans. Everyone gets the basics, and the rest depends entirely on who’s offering.

Going to do authentic pre-23rd century Cajun restaurant doesn’t cost buckets of money. Everyone can book and go there, anytime. It’s first-come, first-served. There’s no way to skip the queue, other than someone else pulling out, of asking them to give you their slot.

But it’s a lot more realistic if not everything was as perfect as we’re told, or even Starfleet officers believe.

At the same time, it is quite far into the future, and they have spent a lot of time and hard work cracking at their issues, with alien assistance.

Earth had to be basically rebuilt from the ground up, after all, and it’s over 200 years past that. Technology makes a lot of the issues facing us today, trivial. If we had their replicators, for example, we would solve a huge amount of issues today. Part of the issue of hunger, for example, is logistical. A single, easily portable device that can create almost endless perfectly nutritious food, and remove waste, would be hugely beneficial to solving it from that angle. Or even their shuttles, if we could just ferry aid directly to the location without concerns over how long it would take to get there, or risks of it being waylaid.

For reference’s sake, they’re about as far from us, as the USA is from its original colonies, and a lot has changed since they revolted and became a country.

Perhaps you should start watching trek instead of commenting on it from a distance, you know, so you know what you are taking about.

The federation (in the TNG era which i would count as the most beloved and accepted by fans) is a post scarcity society, the populations indeed do have full and free access to replication technology, which also solves the waste problem you suggest since replicated goods can also be reclaimed by the devices. Make whatever you need, use it, vanish the leftovers when youre done.

So indeed people are beyond our concepts of material need and property. Individuals may also indulge in commerce if they are of the mercantile inclination, nobody cares, but any citizen can acquire any material resource required or desired in their lives regardless, and for free.

Waste and trash also aren’t an issue because of the aforementioned replicators. Waste and trash become the food. Energy is cheap, next to free, and about as clean as can be.
Why would you live in squalor when you can just as easily push a button and teleport the trash and grime into the nothing?
Education is cheap and easy because we have both plenty of educated people, and sentient AI. Same for medicine.

It’s one of the few pieces of media that has traditionally outright agreed with the spirit of what you’re saying. There’s no need to shit on its message that if we find the cause to work together, we have it within us to develop fully automated luxury gay space communism because we’re more alike than we are different, and an exploration of those differences will bring us together.

The difference between a post scarcity society and the good place is that it’s not that there’s no problems, it’s that there’s no significant material problems. And it’s not like the entire galaxy was like that.

Cynicism becoming conflated with realism is boring.
At it’s heart, the expanse was explicitly not post scarcity, so comparing it’s treatment of inequality with one where those problems have been solved is silly. It’s like saying the expanse is unrealistic because their spaceships are too fast, and Apollo 13 is a more realistic portrayal.

Star Trek is written from the perspective of post-scarcity. There is unlimited free energy, replicators that can create virtually any object from base materials, and an abolishment of money (there is no need for it in post-scarcity, as money is ostensibly just a way to distribute resources).

Rowan J Coleman explores the practical ramifications of that in a 3 part series here, if you’re interested.

It’s definitely easy to poke holes in the logic and suspend disbelief for so long. At the end of the day it’s an idea that if all basic human needs are taken care of then what would we do?

The replicator is also the trash collector and dish washer. When you’re done with your food you just put the left overs back into the replicator and when you “relieve yourself” it goes back into the replicator. Want new furniture? Replicator. Want new clothes? Replicator. So on so forth.

The only thing that is in short supply is energy, so there have been occasional mention of energy rations or credits that can be traded for services. There are still some resource limitations and you have to work or be productive and contributing member of society to gain access. But if you wish to sit around until you get bed sores then you can do that, you will probably be ignored and be an outsider and get visits from healthcare workers.