And yet people still die on Star Trek. There were a few that even Crusher couldn't bring back even though she got to them soon after death.
The No Currency Thing On Earth
- Thread starter Kate Nichols
- Start date
More likely we can assume it's a continuity error. Let's face it, no one on the production was monitoring this stuff from a continuity perspective. That's really all it is, despite the attempts in this thread to explain it.
One thing I've notice is that for other shows or movies, they'll often provide a detailed backstory for events that they may not even show onscreen.
Trek made statements about humans solving poverty and there being no need or want, but then would go back and forth with vague comments about either using money or there being no money.
You never really see humans on earth actually doing simple things like shopping or doing transactions, just quick glimpses in the background, or really vague statements.
So you have a society where they say there is no money or need or want, but you see someone working as a maid, or a smuggler or con man or a "starving student".
Or you have a society that hints they use money like we do, but you see characters say humans don't use money anymore and then go to replicators and just order whatever they want without paying or providing payment information.
One interesting idea is that it costs money to use replicators, but they won't show it--there's no evidence this happens.
So you have to wonder if Sisko is really doing all that hard, messy, time consuming work preparing food in his restaurant for no compensation, or are his customers paying for their meals--except Picard and Jake directly say they don't-humans don't use money in the 24th century.
That's because the creator of Star Trek made vague statements that became dictums that ruled the franchise, but never showed how they worked or how they were achievable .The blame lies with Mr. Roddenberry.
Then how was Quark able to sell his shuttle while on Earth, in order to buy passage back to DS9?
In that episode, Quark says that Sisko should bid on the baseball card in a auction. Quark of all people would know if Sisko (a Human) had money.
Then how do Humans interact with the rest of the Federation? Fake money?
The episode doesn't say. His shuttle could have been bought by anyone passing through Earth who wanted to do business with Quark. Similarly, Quark could have bought passage on any ship passing through Earth willing to sell it. Buying and selling things is the way Ferengi roll. Maybe Quark felt he needed services that he couldn't get "in coach."
A bit later in the post I clarified that money is evidently not needed on Earth. Apparently, the New World Economy can provide everyone's needs without any need for anyone to buy anything. No doubt that does not include everything, such as things considered luxuries.
I don't follow. I'm unaware of any Rules of Acquisition that forbid bidding on something that you can't afford.
Obviously not fake money. That's truly ridiculous. Apparently, the conditions of Federation membership have no financial dimension; whatever responsibilities there are that the Federation requires of its members, Earth meets them. If there are physical resources of any kind that are required, Earth provides them. Also obvious is that humans are not forbidden to earn money wherever it is possible to do that legally in the Federation (e.g., to buy things unavailable in the New World Economy).
Isn’t that largely because of protecting the diamond market by de beers?
Sold his shuttle to another non federation citizen visiting Earth, bought passage to Ds9 in the same manner. Federation provided transport presumably takes longer....whenever we see characters go to and from Earth, they usually make their own arrangements or borrow a runabout. There’s clearly no direct federation passenger service.
That works. To a Ferengi, time is definitely money.
Makes one wonder how long Jacob had the restaurant closed to go see Ben and Jake if the shuttle had to stop over at 6 other detonations first, each way?
Someone bought Kirk's house, Scotty bought someone's boat, McCoy had money to buy passage on a private starship, Kirk told Morrow he could hiring a ship.
All these things were on Earth.
They never said how much Kirk's house cost. If it were a part of the New World Economy as described elsewhere in canon, it would have cost 0, yet still have involved a transfer of ownership.
The travel fares have already been covered. I mean we literally just talked about those. If any net positive or negative amount of credits changed hands, then those were not a part of the New World Economy. Example: Genesis is planet forbidden.
Bottom line, getting rid of currency (in whatever form) was a stupid idea to fit in with some utopian idea Roddenberry came up with after TOS ended and before TNG aired. I recall and interview with Ron Moore where his theory was Gene got caught up in his own publicity (maybe not the right word) and wanted Trek to be less military, less greed/want, no conflict in Starfleet ... essentially take the humanity out of the the characters. They seemed to honor most of that after he passed away, but still it comes down to this is a TV show and good TV shows need conflict, pursuit of a goal, etc to make for good shows. I think "In The Cards" did a nice job at mocking the whole "no money" idea in the show and showing how idiotic it was, but still stuck with the edict that there is no money in Trek and got a good episode out of it.
All this does is create even more mind boggling questions.
If you go by what Picard and Jake said, since there is no money on earth, what were they buying Kirk's house with? Or how can they build an industrial size starship and say it didn't cost anything? And if it didn't cost anything to build one, then what are humans using to buy houses and boats with?
If the ship builders did do all that work for free then that means Sisko probably runs his restaurant for free. But that would mean all the shellfish catching, cleaning, cutting, scrubbing, cooking, setting up the place, waiting on and serving customers- is all for free, no compensation.
When Lily asked if no one got paid to build the Enterprise, Picard said gaining wealth was no longer a motivation in their lives. But that means the ship builders and Sisko and his waiters do all that hard grueling work for nothing, except a sense of satisfaction.
Very hard to understand and strange.
If you go by what Picard and Jake said, since there is no money on earth, what were they buying Kirk's house with? Or how can they build an industrial size starship and say it didn't cost anything? And if it didn't cost anything to build one, then what are humans using to buy houses and boats with?
If the ship builders did do all that work for free then that means Sisko probably runs his restaurant for free. But that would mean all the shellfish catching, cleaning, cutting, scrubbing, cooking, setting up the place, waiting on and serving customers- is all for free, no compensation.
When Lily asked if no one got paid to build the Enterprise, Picard said gaining wealth was no longer a motivation in their lives. But that means the ship builders and Sisko and his waiters do all that hard grueling work for nothing, except a sense of satisfaction.
Very hard to understand and strange.
People still cc people on email, even though there's no carbon involved. The core meaning of "buy" could just as easily be "acquire" as "pay for."
They say the past in a foreign country. The same can be said of the future.
Or when they say "money" doesn't exist, they mean no physical medium, but electronic bookkeeping is going on.
Value is still changing hands with a purchase.
"In the Cards" says no.
Encounter at Farpoint says yes.
Deneb IV ≠ Earth, so "Encounter at Farpoint" says nothing.
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