Post-scarcity civilizations (like the Culture)

What exactly is a post-scarcity civilization? A post-scarcity civilization is a society in which members of the society do not work in order to sustain themselves (and their families) but because they enjoy the work that they do. I have been fascinated by this idea ever since I started reading Iain Banks' series of novels about the Culture, a galaxy-spanning post-scarcity civilization. While he does not tackle the Culture directly in any of his novels, the underlying structure of the civilization is made clear in each of his books.
And it is beautiful. Like Banks says in a recent CNN interview, it is a sort of a "secular heaven" for social liberals. Generally speaking, everyone has as much of everything that they could possibly want, to the point that nobody really hoards anything anymore. Commercial ventures are created and dissolved based on whim - some member of the Culture may have found it interesting to run such an enterprise for a decade or so and tired of it, dissolving it at his pleasure. The government is generally non-existent. The only things tying the entire Culture together is the common set of ideas regarding way of life and the technology that sustains that way of life. Aside from that, local bureaucratic things are handled by sentient beings who enjoy administering to such things (with trillions of members, it becomes somewhat easier to find individuals willing to take care of the "annoying things"). There are no real trials because there is little crime in the Culture, as there is no real necessity driving criminal behavior. Any crimes that do transpire seem to be handled by social exclusion, exile from the Culture being a social punishment for the crime.
Admittedly, this seems a utopian society. But that is a very plausible state of being for a post-scarcity civilization. What is the need for an overbearing laws and government administrators in a situation where resources are not limited? The major reason for government is the "equitable" distribution of a limited set of resources amongst the population. With the limit lifted, there is no longer a reason for a strong government. To some extent, the idea of economics also evaporates as there are no longer limited resources for which individuals must compete... Thinking about post-scarcity civilizations is a scary thought, but pleasantly so (if that is possible). It opens up the possibility of a society not based on ties of excluding others and defending one's group from outsiders but rather on a common set of ideas, thought structure, and way of life... Some might call it anarchy but if, in this anarchy, everyone gets what they want/need, is an anarchy so bad?

[more info about the Culture at io9]

Aside: In the recent interview, Banks suggest that the path to human inception into the Culture depends largely on genetic modification. Really interesting that somebody comes out in favor of genetic modification. I always thought it was sort of an inevitable part of human future, good or bad, which would, at first, differentiate rich and poor humans even more, but ultimately benefit everyone, but Banks really takes it quite a bit further. [via CNN]