The problem with this interpretation is that we've seen currency used within the Federation, and we've seen other indirect forms of evidence that it's been used.
However, your own very comprehensive list gives food for thought. Which of the "credit" usages there are actually intra-Federation?
* Cyrano Jones at K-7? Perhaps, perhaps not, as this is a frontier outpost, bordering on disputed space. Jones might be a Federation citizen, or at least directly subject to its laws. But the bar and its tender need not be - re: Quark's.
They most probably are both Federates. There's no evidence whatsoever that the bartender is not a Federation citizen, and Deep Space Station K-7 is a Federation -- though not Starfleet -- outpost. Further, we also saw Jones selling tribbles to
Enterprise crewmembers like Uhura, who clearly is a Federate.
I'd argue that the evidence is neutral here, so if later developments warrant, this isolated piece could be interpreted in the most convenient way. And in the category of "later developments", I'd count DS9 and Quark's as a rather important predecent (or postdecent?).
The problem with this logic is two-fold: 1. TOS had already established the Federation Credit as the UFP's currency; 2. There's no evidence of some sort of special agreement between the UFP/Starfleet and Quark's bar. To be fair, though, I would personally have thought that Quark would have wanted people to use Bajoran litas since it's Bajoran territory until the Relaunch.
But the TOS precedent is limited to ambiguous events aboard another deep space station. "Credits" aren't mentioned elsewhere in TOS, nor is the use of currency, even if business transactions are.
And there are plenty of special arrangements regarding Quark, such as Sisko waiving Quark's rent. The general gist seems to be that the two sides do business, while each side observes its own set of rules and the "common ground" part is largely made up as they go. It doesn't require the UFP system to match the Ferengi one or vice versa.
Most of the robbers we saw were clearly Human, making it strongly probable. Seems to me that we should always assume a member of a known Federation species is probably a Federate unless it's said otherwise.
Possibly. But if TOS precedent is to be valued, in this case it clearly stands against that idea...
And there is no evidence whatsoever that the Bank of Bolias deals primarily in foreign currency. Bolarus/Bolias is clearly a Federation Member world, and it clearly has a major bank, so obviously banking is going on in the Federation.
Sure. But there is no pressing reason to assume that UFP banking would involve cash or currency or money. Just because an old word is being used does not mean that its old definition would hold - today's banks aren't true to the origins of the word, either.
The aspect of storing money in vaults could be solely related to the UFP/foreigner part of the banking business. No evidence that it would be, but it's a possibility - and it allows for the "Feds have no money" thing that has been stated so many times it's difficult and uncomfortable to ignore it altogether.
No, but what the hell would the Federation need with a fine unless it requires revenue of some sort?
Oh, here we first run into a conceptual misunderstanding: I'm not advocating that the UFP no longer has an economy. I'm only suggesting an interpretation of the evidence so that UFP citizens no longer use money.
The UFP no doubt trades with all sort of entities. But it seems to have purged its citizens from that business, eliminating the consumer market. Which no doubt is of minimal importance anyway at that day and age, even if the population numbers in trillions: the UFP is in the business of colonizing planets, raising new continents and reigniting stars, and probably spends more on a single starship than on the daily meals of the populance.
There's no evidence that it's an expense account for only for Federation representatives to foreign worlds.
Except that in the TNG context, credits are only used in that very manner.
In point of fact, that doesn't even make sense -- why would a moneyless society that has eliminated the desire to accumulate wealth or material objects give any of its officers an expense account for alien trade?
Why wouldn't it make sense? These people are the representatives of the Federation way, so they might try and market the virtues of moneylessness. But they also need to be empowered to perform their missions. Thus, they get phasers, communicators, and expense accounts.
Sure, but how could the Federation possibly have the money to pay for it unless it does possess a monetary system of some sort?
By hiding the money from the citizens. It would make quite a bit of sense to automate the daily movements of consumer money, now wouldn't it? Hiding the movements from the users would only be a minor additional step, an active measure in preventing this "accumulation of wealth" thing that apparently is considered so evil in the 24th century.
Banking computers could play zero-sum games with UFP money far more efficiently if live citizens didn't come and mess with it. Said citizens would simply be kept in bread and circuses, with generous marigins for the odd luxury purchase, without allowing them a say in the greater economy of the UFP:
It was very clearly implied (Curzon as a Federation diplomat and then two Starfleet officers in a row? That's an AWFUL lot of cultural integration for a foreign state), and that is the direction the novels have taken. And since this is a TrekLit, it's perfectly acceptable evidence.
Oh, sure. But onscreen evidence doesn't necessitate this, which I felt obligated to mention (and to also mention the distinction).
Even if you buy that a world called New Sydney isn't a Federation world -- and again, I think that given the Federation's size, we ought to assume that it's Federation unless it's specifically said otherwise -- the fact that there's a business owned and operated by Federation citizens still undermines the idea of a moneyless, want-less society.
Uh, that doesn't make any sense. Federation is big = all planets are UFP planets = all people are UFP citizens? Since when did Gul Dukat become a Fed? Since when was Qo'noS a Federation world?
As someone who has worked in a restaurant, no. There are few work environments as stressful, or full of customers as impatient and ungracious, as a restaurant. The idea that anyone would willingly operate or work at a restaurant in the absence of some sort of incentive beyond "pride in accomplishment" is ludicrous. You might as well suggest that enough people would enjoy cleaning toilets for no reward to keep the janitorial industry alive.
Naah, I won't accept that. Joe Sisko clearly and greatly enjoys what he is doing. And he isn't in want of anything material that we could discern. You just happen to be a loser.
That makes no sense at all. Rushing out to publish a half-finished "manuscript" draft isn't a source of professional pride at all -- it's a source of professional embarrassment. The only way the publisher's actions in "Author, Author" make ANY sense at all is if they needed to get Photons Be Free out there to make money off of it.
I don't get it. Why wouldn't "being first" be a source of pride? Obviously, the pride-based economy would be as full of compromises and complications as the money-based one - and "first" could well trump other sorts of best here.
You also neglected to address Quark's being able to sell a shuttle for scrap on Earth and then buying a ticket to DS9, or Bashir's father's numerous privately-owned businesses (all apparently financial failures, too).
Where do you get that Bashir would have owned businesses? He held jobs. He was discharged from them. He explicitly wasn't his own boss!
And once again, having a foreigner do business in the UFP is no proof that UFP citizens could do the same.
There are also other references to money and monetary transactions in the Federation or involving Federates:
* Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, wherein McCoy is told that it will be expensive to hire a transport to the Mutara Sector
Accepted.
* DS9's "Explorers," wherein Sisko talks about using up "a month's worth of transporter credits" by constantly beaming back home after entering Starfleet Academy
Not accepted. When one specifies transporter credits, one tells them apart from credits. This is clearly something different from money. And it seems to be a Starfleet Academy thing, not related to the UFP economy. That's what military training institutions do: they impose arbitrary limitations and hardships on the pupils for training purposes.
* In "The Apple," Kirk asks Spock if he knows how much Starfleet has invested in him, and Spock begins to answer.
Yeah - he tells how many hours Starfleet has spent training him.
* In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Scotty has just bought a boat
But money isn't mentioned as having been involved. People obtain and provide items and services in Trek all the time, but money doesn't change hands except in "Tribbles" and when dealing with aliens.
* Harry Mudd's Federation criminal record indicates in "Mudd's Women" that he is guilty of having purchased a spacecraft with counterfeit currency.
True. But if the idea is to support the claim for moneyless consumer economy, then this can be dismissed as referring to foreign currency. After all, the whole concept of moneylessness is something the writers thought they could impose on the Trek universe, quite regardless of earlier but unexpressed writer intention, because the balance of evidence allowed for it. And the balance does allow for it, as the TOS counterexamples are few and can be reinterpreted.
He is also guilty of being a con man and smuggler, and he's clearly operating within Federation space (delivering mail-order brides to the Rigel system), which makes no sense if there's no money in the Federation to be made. And of course he was engaging in sentient smuggling in the hopes of making money from the Federation citizens he sold those women to.
Why Federation citizens? Once again we're operating in the frontier. It seems to have its own economy in all incarnations of Trek - a shadowy one in which people like Jake Sisko or Jean-Luc Picard take no part.
* In "I, Mudd," we discover that he later tried to sell technology that he did not possess the patents for, including a Vulcan patent, to the inhabitants of various worlds, including Deneb V, which Star Charts establishes to be a Federation world.
On flimsy evidence, really.
Even if it wasn't, though, why would anyone on Vulcan hold a patent except to make money?
Now that's one of the most obvious things where intellectual rights would be considered important quite regardless of material value... And one of the first elements in this supposed moneyless consumer economy of the 24th century.
* In "The Doomsday Machine," Kirk tells Scotty that he's earned his pay for that week
Yup, he tells this to the leading onboard expert on colorful metaphors...
Basically, the issue is that there are numerous examples of trade and monetary exchange going on both within and without the Federation, involving Federation citizens. This contradicts the idea that there is absolutely no money and no monetary exchange and no desire to accumulate material goods or to gain wealth.
The point of my argument was that the examples of Fed-to-Fed trade involving money are almost nonexistent, and the examples of Fed-to-alien trade don't involve "accumulation of wealth" except when the Fed in question is a despised criminal (or, by the Trek definition of crime, clinically insane).
The only logical way to reconcile this discrepancy is to assume that because of the increased resources generated by being a space-faring civilization, poverty has been eliminated, and the Federation government is wealthy enough that it can more than afford to support anyone who is not privately employed. In other words, you can live a long, healthy, comfortable life without ever needing money, but, if you want luxuries, things that aren't necessary for physical and mental health, you have to earn them.
Agreed with the first part - but I see no evidence that you have to earn anything to obtain luxuries. The items or services of rarity mentioned are basically limited to interstellar trips. And the people wanting to purchase those trips have all been criminals, sometimes hunted ones, so their two choices could be to purchase from non-Feds, or to grind their teeth and obey the UFP bans on the sort of travel they wish for.
Besides, the necessity of foreign trade is yet another reason to think the Federation has currency. The idea that the advanced Federation would resort to bartering with societies have have currency is, again, absurd.
Why barter? Many a society in history has done foreign trade while banning one's own citizens from engaging in foreign trade on their own. Depriving the citizens of currency would be an excellent way to ensure that, and worked fine for the USSR. Only criminal elements would then engage in the use of currency - and elimination of crime would be a separate process, in part involving keeping the citizens in bread and circuses but also featuring other elements unrelated to economy.
Timo Saloniemi
