Cigars and Vapers!
It's 2399 and unhealthy tobacco products are still around! Nah, I don't think so.
Deckard B26354, I'm filed and monitored.
I also wanta know why they're acting like there are still social classes and unevenly distributed wealth in this future. It's not like that one woman couldn't live the same life as Picard and have a replicator make whatever she wanted.
shareThis link explains how RAFFI smokes something called SNAKE WEED:
http://blog.trekcore.com/2020/02/michael-chabon-answers-star-trek-picard-fan-questions/
And my theory is PICARD uses the PROFITS he makes from selling WINE to SUPPORT those who live there in FREECLOUD (which would also explain the reason why he has 2 ROMULANS working for him).
Because those in FREECLOUD may also be REFUGEES that he helped to RESCUE.
And since no one else would want to help them, PICARD may also be SUPPORTING them by producing the WINE (which would also be PRODUCED by the ROMULAN COUPLE now that PICARD is off again to have still more ADVENTURES in SPACE).
Throughout most of Star Trek we've had limited contact with the civilian world. Shows like DS9 have revealed that the average person sees Starfleet personnel as something like Marines - spit and polish, straight arrow, boy scout types. Implying that the "real world" is somewhat messier. As you'd expect it to be. They've come a long way from where we are today but society isn't a perfect utopia.
We've also seen that civilians use money. Serving in Starfleet you may not need it, except maybe on shore leave, but regular folks clearly do. I imagine the class differences are less pronounced. Corporations and the wealthy don't control the government. Things like replicators would even out a lot of the lifestyle differences - in our own future home nanotech fabrication units, the ultimate evolution of 3D printing, may fill the same role.
The rich aren't anywhere near as obscenely rich and even the poorest live quite well, not wanting for much. That's the impression I get.
Speaking of replicators ... one question I've always had about Starfleet's space docks: why don't they just build giant orbital replicators that materialize whole ships? Wouldn't that be more efficient than laboriously constructing them? Instead of ordering a cup of earl grey you say "Starship, galaxy class" and it appears inside the dock.
Not only have they had LIMITED CONTACT with the CIVILIAN WORLD, but they've also had LIMITED CONTACT with MOST of the rest of those who live OUTSIDE of the FEDERATION.
To see this is the case, all one needs to do is check out a MAP which shows you where the ROMULAN and the KLINGON and other TERRITORY is located.
https://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/9/8071/KA2_EAW_Map.png
So members of STAR FLEET also inhabit pretty much what amounts to their being inside of a PROTECTIVE CACOON like setting where they really have no idea what else goes on around them (which is also made EVIDENT in the COMIC BOOK PREQUEL story where PICARD goes to rescue 10,000 ROMULANS and DISCOVERS how they've also got 5 MILLION SLAVES who grow their VINEYARDS for them).
The IDEA that one could PUSH a BUTTON or tell a MACHINE to BUILD a SHIP is probably also just as UTOPIAN an IDEA as thinking one could ever create a PERFECT SOCIETY.
Because one also still needs someone to CHECK to see that there haven't been any MAJOR SCREW UPS during the BUILDING PROCESS. Otherwise a CREW could also get out into SPACE before they discovered something wasn't done properly during the BUILDING PROCESS which could also lead to the DEATHS of everyone on the ship.
I was talking about what us viewers have been shown. The characters are undoubtedly quite familiar with the civilian world.
And of course Starfleet ships don't generally cruise around the space of those other political entities. Any more than the US Air Force patrols the skies of other nations. In the vastness of space you might well be able to cross someone else's territory undetected (especially if you stayed away from any systems) but you'd be running a risk if the locals were unfriendly. Some of the various kingdoms, empires, and leagues are more tolerant than others.
I assume you're familiar with nanotechnology. Fabrication units, also known as fabbers, forges, vats, etc., would allow you to make anything for which you had a template (blueprint) file and sufficient raw material containing the required component elements. n kilograms of iron, aluminum, carbon, or whatever else goes into it. Add power, probably in the form of electricity, to run the reactions and your assembly nanites will literally grow the item - a perfect copy down to the molecular level every time. Of course you'd test it just to be sure. But the idea of pushing a button and having a machine build a machine is hardly pie in the sky utopian fantasy. We can already do this to some degree with so-called 3D printers. Just a matter of time until our technology is up to the more ambitious and versatile applications.
And why DO you CAPITALIZE random words and PHRASES in your posts? Does that serve some purpose I'm not AWARE of? Does it get your posts to show up more OFTEN on a Google search or SOMETHING?