If you enjoyed this, Seth MacFarlane (yes that one) weighed in on whether the replicator enabled the federations utopian society, or whether the federations utopian society enabled the replicator in an episode of Orville (I haven't watched it yet).
It seems obvious that the replicator enables utopias, but the point that was made was very thought provoking.
Here is the original source I first read an analysis of this idea from (sorry for linking to reddit): https://i.redd.it/9pmyd8xz3j2b1.png
Original sources from the screen shot: https://twitter.com/StorySlug/status/1587086761150349312
Interestingly, the Season 3 finale of "The Orville" took direct aim at the idea that
Star Trek's utopian future is only possible because of the replicator, and the
typically-conservative Trek fans who make the argument.
A woman from an underdeveloped planet keeps begging for replicator technology on the grounds
that it would bring her planet into the same socialist utopia that the crew of the Orville
enjoys, and the first officer says "You've basically got that backwards."
She explains that it was their socialist utopia that brought about the cooperation necessary
to invent the replicator, and that had it been invented during Earth's 20th or 21st centuries
it wouldn't have worked, because the rich and powerful would have hoarded the technology.
As @BoomerNiner often says, we have enough resources on the planet right now, without a replicator,
to give everybody food and housing — if we wanted to. The invention of a replicator wouldn't change that.
Zefram Cochrane, famously, tried to invent the warp drive with a profit motive - he thought he was going
to get rich off the technology, and it was only the realization that we weren't alone in the galaxy
(and perhaps a few lectures from people from the future) that changed him.
But mankind wasn't ready for all the various technologies that sprang from this revolution, which is
why the Vulcans tried to keep a close eye on humanity's entrance into the galaxy.
A few years after First Contact, Earth's government launched a probe, called "Friendship-1"
that tried to give other planets the means to contact Earth.
Instead, the people the probe found reverse-engineered the antimatter technology and
accidentally destroyed their planet.
The same thing happened in The Orville - early explorers, acting like missionaries, tried to bring
their advanced technology to other worlds in the hope of helping people - but the technology
just created conflict and ruined entire planets.
People don't suddenly become moved to share because of abundance - Elon Musk had 44 billion dollars
and he didn't decide to share it with the world, he decided to buy Twitter with it.
He has always, and will continue to, hoard his wealth for himself no matter how much he has.
If Tesla invented a replicator they wouldn't give that away to everyone for free. They'd patent it,
and sell it to world governments with DRM software they could deactivate remotely if those
governments didn't pay a subscription fee.
If governments had replicators, they wouldn't suddenly start handing out free, delicious, nutritious
food to everyone - "that will collapse the economy," they'd say.
"Free food for the needy would be unfair to people who've been paying money for food all this time."
"How will people be motivated to work," the Republicans would say,
"if they don't have the threat of starvation hanging over them?
If everyone has enough food, how will we motivate people to join the Army?"
Even though the replicator was producing molecularly-identical food to the real thing,
conservatives would insist it wasn't "real" enough for them. "Real" beef, they'd say,
demands the slaughter of an animal. Replicated beef is basically *vegan.*
The beef industry would quickly draw battle lines with their donation money,
congressmen from places like Texas would move to outlaw replicated meat from
being served on the grounds that it hurts entire industries.
Conspiracy theorists would insist that replicated beef is full of additives
the government is trying to sneak into them to feminize men and make you sick,
even though *real* beef is full of antibiotics and hormones.
Campaign ads would show Republicans personally slaughtering cattle and gutting
deer to show their commitment to only eating meat that was really alive.
We're already seeing this type of thing when, like, Cracker Barrel tries to
introduce plant-based sausage that's entirely optional to order.
People FREAK OUT that you might take their meat away.
In short, inventing a replicator wouldn't save us - right now, it'd *ruin* us
even faster, as the amount of bounty the wealth plays keep-away with would
just grow even larger and more ludicrous.
Capitalism would never allow a replicator to exist to its true potential,
too many people would go broke. Replicators didn't create the Star Trek future,
the Star Trek future comes first, then replicators.