Is it possible to live in a society without money?


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At one extreme, the meal at Joe Sisko's restaurant is very cheap. The transaction would be recorded automatically and a small amount of credit would be transferred from your account to Joe Sisko's account. Note that the low price of restaurant food would make running a restaurant more of a hobby than a real job.

At the other extreme, real estate and ships would still be major luxury purchases for most people, so the process would probably be not too different from the current one.

Since African art is easily replicated, it should be quite cheap unless there is some way to certify it as "original" or "real". Was any mention ever made of this art being rare or expensive?

The bolt of fabric is cheap for a Federation citizan but worth tracking for the non-Federation merchant in Farpoint -- so the credit transfer that a Federation merchant would have assumed has to be stated explicitly here.

The Star Trek economy works fine if references to a lack of money simply mean that most Federation citizens have no reason to bother carrying around cash. If it is taken to indicate the complete lack of any monetary system, then that idea would be contradicted by both common sense and specific references to financial exchanges on the various shows.


David knott 242 wrote:

At one extreme, the meal at Joe Sisko's restaurant is very cheap. The transaction would be recorded automatically and a small amount of credit would be transferred from your account to Joe Sisko's account. Note that the low price of restaurant food would make running a restaurant more of a hobby than a real job.

At the other extreme, real estate and ships would still be major luxury purchases for most people, so the process would probably be not too different from the current one.

Since African art is easily replicated, it should be quite cheap unless there is some way to certify it as "original" or "real". Was any mention ever made of this art being rare or expensive?

The bolt of fabric is cheap for a Federation citizan but worth tracking for the non-Federation merchant in Farpoint -- so the credit transfer that a Federation merchant would have assumed has to be stated explicitly here.

The Star Trek economy works fine if references to a lack of money simply mean that most Federation citizens have no reason to bother carrying around cash. If it is taken to indicate the complete lack of any monetary system, then that idea would be contradicted by both common sense and specific references to financial exchanges on the various shows.

Picard confirms that "[He doesn't] get paid" in First Contact. This implies far more than just 'no cash' or 'credits only' type of system.

In The Search, Part I Sisko refers to the collection as "one of the finest collections of ancient African art you'll ever see."

Liberty's Edge

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David knott 242 wrote:
At one extreme, the meal at Joe Sisko's restaurant is very cheap. The transaction would be recorded automatically and a small amount of credit would be transferred from your account to Joe Sisko's account. Note that the low price of restaurant food would make running a restaurant more of a hobby than a real job.

Charging anything would be nonsensical. Joe doesn't run the restaurant to make a living. He doesn't have any costs. He does it because he has the skills and talent to make delicious food that people want to eat.

David knott 242 wrote:
At the other extreme, real estate and ships would still be major luxury purchases for most people, so the process would probably be not too different from the current one.

Why? There's no evidence that Joe owns the building or the land it's on. He doesn't need to. As long as people want to go to his restaurant there's no reason for anything else to be there. As I said earlier, a post-scarcity economy still tracks credits or something to apportion things that are actually scarce like land use, an expert's time, replicator time, antiques, the wine from Picard's family estate etc.

David knott 242 wrote:
Since African art is easily replicated, it should be quite cheap unless there is some way to certify it as "original" or "real". Was any mention ever made of this art being rare or expensive?

See above.

David knott 242 wrote:
The bolt of fabric is cheap for a Federation citizan but worth tracking for the non-Federation merchant in Farpoint -- so the credit transfer that a Federation merchant would have assumed has to be stated explicitly here.

External trade.

David knott 242 wrote:

The Star Trek economy works fine if references to a lack of money simply mean that most Federation citizens have no reason to bother carrying around cash. If it is taken to indicate the complete lack of any monetary system, then that idea would be contradicted by both common sense and specific references to financial exchanges on the various shows.

It is stated several times in the show that the UFP does not have money and operates on something termed the New World Economy.

"I'm Human, I don't have any money."
"It's not my fault that your species decided to abandon currency-based economics in favor of some philosophy of self-enhancement."
"Hey, watch it. There's nothing wrong with our philosophy. We work to better ourselves and the rest of Humanity."
- Jake Sisko and Nog,"In the Cards" (DS9, 5x25)

Post-scarcity economy
Whuffie

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