You replicator a piece of a replicator every time you stop in the communal kitchen for Low Grade Mush Recipe 1, and after a few years you got yourself a brand new replicator.
Currency & the Federation crew.
- Thread starter TopperHenly
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Replicators seem to be as common in Star Trek as stoves are in our world, maybe more so since they've eliminated poverty.
We see the Enterprise's public replicators in TNG and DS9 had the Replimat, so even if somebody doesn't have a replicator it's easy to assume that they'd have access to a public replicator. I know there's Robert who doesn't want a replicator in his home, but I think that strictly goes for a food replicator and the Picard family still gets their stuff from some sort of "replicator mal" or whatever.
I think Robert's fire extinguisher and sprinkler system was all diy
They could always go to the 'Bank of Bolias' for a loan to buy one.......
EAS has an article on the supposed inconsistencies of the Federation economy
https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/economy.htm
There are very minor spoilers for Picard and Discovery Season 1 in there if you haven't watched that. Nothing that really spoils the main plot for either series.
https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/economy.htm
There are very minor spoilers for Picard and Discovery Season 1 in there if you haven't watched that. Nothing that really spoils the main plot for either series.
The TNG replicators never needed matter: they were introduced as pure energy-to-matter transfer. The replicators in Enterprise did, and the ones in season 3 of Discovery do - likely due to power limitations after the burn. I don't believe TOS ever specified.
In my head canon the costs of maintaining the replicator infrastructure and supplying any required inputs is relatively low to the point that it's not a issue and a relatively small workforce could handle it.
It may not be allocated at the individual level. It could be that there's just a general fund at DS9 that is available to all the Starfleet officers stationed there who can use it to buy food, clothes, etc. from the local merchants. Assuming everyone is just using it for small normal purchases, it probably wouldn't be an issue. Maybe the system alerts someone if anyone tries to spend at too fast of a rate (e.g. develops a gambling problem at Quarks).
One of Treks inconsistencies
TOS era 23rd century
Spock knew how much his Starfleet training cost
The trouble with Tribbles - the human trader was selling them for credits on a human run spacestation
TAS had a human millionare/billionaire as a character
TOS movie
TVH Kirk and crew were not familiar with paper money
TNG era 24th century
Not everyone has replicators
However Jake Sisko had no money and wanted to borrow latinum from Nog
But in Encounter at Farpoint, Dr Crusher bought fabric on credit
Picards speech in the FC movie is open to interpretation plus he speaks from a position of class privilege
The use of money depends on needs of the plot, like warp speed
TOS era 23rd century
Spock knew how much his Starfleet training cost
The trouble with Tribbles - the human trader was selling them for credits on a human run spacestation
TAS had a human millionare/billionaire as a character
TOS movie
TVH Kirk and crew were not familiar with paper money
TNG era 24th century
Not everyone has replicators
However Jake Sisko had no money and wanted to borrow latinum from Nog
But in Encounter at Farpoint, Dr Crusher bought fabric on credit
Picards speech in the FC movie is open to interpretation plus he speaks from a position of class privilege
The use of money depends on needs of the plot, like warp speed
So here's how I think it works:
- Replicators provide most of what you would need day to day (food, clothes, medicine, household supplies, etc.). Even if you don't have a replicator yourself, you can just use a public one for free. Replicators are supplied and maintained by a relatively small branch of government. In addition to this, people maintain shops and restaurants where you can eat or obtain items for free.
- Public programs provide free education, healthcare, and transportation. There might be an allowance system for certain things (e.g. transporter credits) to prevent overuse.
- When you start getting into things that are still scarce, like housing, it gets trickier. I'm assuming decent accommodations are available for everyone (e.g. apartments, modest houses, etc.) but it might get tricky when multiple people want the same house or if there are certain properties that are more desirable (e.g. waterfront properties, Picard's chateau, etc.). Perhaps in these situations when someone moves out of a house there is a lottery system to determine the new owner unless there's a claim by an immediate family member. There would need to be a limitation on individuals owning multiple properties. One thing this doesn't explain is why Raffi lives in squalor in the desert in STP.
- I'm also not sure how it would work if you wanted something even bigger. Like, what if you wanted a science vessel to go exploring? Here I could see some type of application process where you have to justify why you need the item in question, it gets approved by a committee, and then goes into a queue at the shipyard. The process would probably take some time and be dependent on the available capacity of the shipyard.
- While money isn't needed within the Federation, it is needed when Federation members interact non-Federation members. These interactions are governed by negotiated trade agreements. So the Federation would authorize participation in the galactic monetary system (latinum) with certain organizations (e.g. the Ferengi) and provide an allowance to its members that are in roles where they would need it.
- Replicators provide most of what you would need day to day (food, clothes, medicine, household supplies, etc.). Even if you don't have a replicator yourself, you can just use a public one for free. Replicators are supplied and maintained by a relatively small branch of government. In addition to this, people maintain shops and restaurants where you can eat or obtain items for free.
- Public programs provide free education, healthcare, and transportation. There might be an allowance system for certain things (e.g. transporter credits) to prevent overuse.
- When you start getting into things that are still scarce, like housing, it gets trickier. I'm assuming decent accommodations are available for everyone (e.g. apartments, modest houses, etc.) but it might get tricky when multiple people want the same house or if there are certain properties that are more desirable (e.g. waterfront properties, Picard's chateau, etc.). Perhaps in these situations when someone moves out of a house there is a lottery system to determine the new owner unless there's a claim by an immediate family member. There would need to be a limitation on individuals owning multiple properties. One thing this doesn't explain is why Raffi lives in squalor in the desert in STP.
- I'm also not sure how it would work if you wanted something even bigger. Like, what if you wanted a science vessel to go exploring? Here I could see some type of application process where you have to justify why you need the item in question, it gets approved by a committee, and then goes into a queue at the shipyard. The process would probably take some time and be dependent on the available capacity of the shipyard.
- While money isn't needed within the Federation, it is needed when Federation members interact non-Federation members. These interactions are governed by negotiated trade agreements. So the Federation would authorize participation in the galactic monetary system (latinum) with certain organizations (e.g. the Ferengi) and provide an allowance to its members that are in roles where they would need it.
Raffi does not live in squalor
It kind of looked like the future version of squalor (it was a trailer in the middle of the desert) and she implied she was envious of Picard's living conditions which would imply a sub-standard of living.
“I saw you sitting back in your very fine chateau – those big oak beams, heirloom furniture. I’d show you around my estate, but it’s more of a hovel, so that would just be humiliating.”
I don't live in squalor and would admire anyone owning a fine château. Plus she was being sarcastic with her comparisons,
Maybe, perhaps her living situation in the desert was self imposed then.
That is a great point. Maybe each household receives a replicator 'bill' at the end of the month in the same way we get gas & electric bills in the present day.
Also maybe you have to use a PIN or some other form of identification method when using public replicators which you will be billed for at a later date.
Didn't Nog nag Jake over Jake wanting something but didn't have the money in an episode?
Also, and while this isn't as probable, who uses phrases that were coined centuries ago?
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/proverbs.html offers a few fun examples, such as:
- https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a-change-is-as-good-as-a-rest.html (from the 1800s)
- https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a-friend-in-need-is-a-friend-indeed.html (from the 1400s, doth ye feel old yet? Cuz I do...
) - https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a-good-man-is-hard-to-find.html (arguably stems back to Biblical days, if not the 1600s, and I sorta like one of the more popular and equally juvenile rewording of that phrase, often found on some dating sites...
)
To cut a long story short,
Spoiler alert, they off themselves in a way unbecoming to any spy genre show... there should have been a sequel, but I doubt the Montagues and Capulets spent the rest of whatever singing "Incense and Peppemints" while snorting the colour of time and pondering why "time" and "thyme" sound alike but taste ever so differently...
I agree that "earned your pay for the week" is certainly a leftover figure of speech. Also "I'll bet you credits to navy beans" is an expression that a guest junior officer in acting command (!) used in one TOS episode.
It's harder to justify Spock reciting exactly how much Starfleet had invested in him, though.
Yes, Nog said something like "Well, if you don't need money, then you certainly don't need MINE" and he kind of has a point. Whatever arrangements Starfleet made for their officers to buy drinks and holosuite time and spins at the wheel weren't set up for their children. (Maybe Jake blew his wad on bad Dom-Jot wagers.) Keiko must have had some arrangements too.
It's harder to justify Spock reciting exactly how much Starfleet had invested in him, though.
Yes, Nog said something like "Well, if you don't need money, then you certainly don't need MINE" and he kind of has a point. Whatever arrangements Starfleet made for their officers to buy drinks and holosuite time and spins at the wheel weren't set up for their children. (Maybe Jake blew his wad on bad Dom-Jot wagers.) Keiko must have had some arrangements too.
