The No Currency Thing On Earth

[M.A.C.O.]

I too wondered how the no currency thing works on Earth. I mean, just look at the Picard family vineyard!

Here Picard and his brother Robert make a fine red wine. Chateau Picard. As you can see, the Picard family is certainly not hurting for money, or land, or water (for the grapes), or demand for their product.

 

[ALF]

^^ Good point, M.A.C.O.

Because Picard's estate produces something they are likely to be given more agency/resources as needed by the Federation for maintaining such private land ownership. There's also the chance that the vineyard is grandfathered-in as a result of being passed down through multiple generations from the old economy.

The big question is -- is Chateau Picard wine freely available to all other Federation citizens? Because outliers will likely have to pony up some number of slips, strips or bars.

 

[Tenacity]

Thing is both Crusher and Picard made purchases during the show, Picard did so on a Federation planet while on holiday.

Robert Picard disliked/distrusted replicators, so there must have been a way for him to acquire what he needed other than through a replicator.

Miles O'Brien's family didn't have a relicator either.

In the DS9 episode "In The Cards" Jake said he had no money, but earlier Quark suggested Captain Sisko bid on a baseball card and Jake said nothing about his father having no money.

QUARK: Tell him to be here at twelve hundred hours and he can bid along with everyone else.
JAKE: No. I'm going to bid on this.

And why, if Humanity placed no value in possessions, would Captain Sisko place more worth in a real mint condition nineteen fifty one Willie Mays rookie baseball card, over a replicated reproduction?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

As you can see, the Picard family is certainly not hurting for money

No one hurts for money.

 

[MAGolding]

Hence, Pike at one point toying with the idea of retiring from his cushy Federation life to go off and become an Orion pirate.

Kor

But Pike was talking 13 years before TOS, and TOS was about a century before TNG when the money less economy was first mentioned.

Or possibly the money less economy was first mentioned 15 or 20 years after TOS in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

McCOY: It's a miracle these people ever got out of the twentieth century.
KIRK: They're still using money. We've got to find some.

ANTIQUE STORE OWNER: Well, they'd be worth more if the lenses were intact. I'll give you one hundred dollars.

(they attempt to board the bus)
SPOCK: What does it mean, 'Exact change'?

WAITER: Sure! Who gets the bad news?
GILLIAN: Don't' tell me they don't use money in the twenty-third century.
KIRK: Well, they don't.

But that would still be several decades after Pike thought of becoming an Orion trader - not pirate.

 

[Kor]

I too wondered how the no currency thing works on Earth. I mean, just look at the Picard family vineyard!

Here Picard and his brother Robert make a fine red wine. Chateau Picard. As you can see, the Picard family is certainly not hurting for money, or land, or water (for the grapes), or demand for their product.

But they were apparently hurting for effective modern fire suppression systems.

Kor

 

[Kemaiku]

They must make a fortune from that half dozen bottles they can make from having 4-5 people working all that land alone.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

But they were apparently hurting for effective modern fire suppression systems.

Kor

Sick BURN!

Shame really. All the ways Star Trek has cured death, and there was nothing to be done to help Rene and Robert.

 

[Nakita Akita]

Because he enjoys cooking and meeting people.

My family owned a restaurant and I've worked in them.
I suppose there are people that might like it.
I just remember it being hard sometimes frustrating WORK.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

They must make a fortune from that half dozen bottles they can make from having 4-5 people working all that land alone.

A fortune in self-satisfaction.

 

[Kemaiku]

A fortune in self-satisfaction.

Pity they didn't spend it on fire extinguishers.

 

[Kor]

My family owned a restaurant and I've worked in them.
I suppose there are people that might like it.
I just remember it being hard sometimes frustrating WORK.

That's in our day. In three hundred years, the restaurant industry will have a more evolved sensibility.

Kor

 

[Kemaiku]

That's in our day. In three hundred years, the restaurant industry will have a more evolved sensibility.

Kor

Maybe, or they're watching a Ramsey descendant working as a critic across the Federation, swearing at the owners in Klingon.

 

[Nakita Akita]

That's in our day. In three hundred years, the restaurant industry will have a more evolved sensibility.

Kor

Yea, because people don't have to work and it makes them waaaaaay less bitchy!

 

[Nakita Akita]

Maybe, or they're watching a Ramsey descendant working as a critic across the Federation, swearing at the owners in Klingon.

He's my favorite, except for the "F" word, he is channeling my mom!

 

[kkt]

The Picards can work all that land with few people because there are machines doing the repetitive work. I bet way before Star Trek's time we have machines that can skip the unripe grapes and pick the ripe ones with a gentle tug that separates them from the vine without crushing them.

I wondered about peeling the potatoes in the restaurant. Do potatoes peeled by hand really taste different from potatoes peeled with the peeling machine?

 

[STEPhon IT]

I too wondered how the no currency thing works on Earth. I mean, just look at the Picard family vineyard!


Here Picard and his brother Robert make a fine red wine. Chateau Picard. As you can see, the Picard family is certainly not hurting for money, or land, or water (for the grapes), or demand for their product.

Sigh! It's possible in the vast alien civilizations of Star Trek there maybe a demand for Picard's produce and I'm sure there's something these other civilizations may have which Picard may want. So they negotiate a trade. You know, something Earth civilizations has done since the beginning of society's foundation. If it's good enough in the past, and the present, it's good enough in the future... at a larger scale.

Thing is both Crusher and Picard made purchases during the show, Picard did so on a Federation planet while on holiday.

Robert Picard disliked/distrusted replicators, so there must have been a way for him to acquire what he needed other than through a replicator.

Miles O'Brien's family didn't have a relicator either.

In the DS9 episode "In The Cards" Jake said he had no money, but earlier Quark suggested Captain Sisko bid on a baseball card and Jake said nothing about his father having no money.

QUARK: Tell him to be here at twelve hundred hours and he can bid along with everyone else.
JAKE: No. I'm going to bid on this.

On Bajor, and DS9 currency was necessary, I'm sure Jake could've earned some currency on Bajor or on many business establishments on the station.

And why, if Humanity placed no value in possessions, would Captain Sisko place more worth in a real mint condition nineteen fifty one Willie Mays rookie baseball card, over a replicated reproduction?

Great point. I have the answer, it's called bad writing.

 

[ALF]

Speaking of bad writing, I think that the fatal fire at the vineyard during Generations is pretty silly.

And why, if Humanity placed no value in possessions, would Captain Sisko place more worth in a real mint condition nineteen fifty one Willie Mays rookie baseball card, over a replicated reproduction?

Authenticity?

Is the Beverly Crusher example you cited during Encounter at Farpoint? She was interested in the bolt of fabric and 'charged it to the ship'? That's a great one because Deneb IV wanted to be in the Federation desperately - but they weren't part of it yet - so I'm guessing Bev had to dip into her non-Federation finances for that one.

Picard is likely entitled to many dozen Horga'hn with his influence as a Starfleet captain. I'm guessing here that Risa would have an integrated Federation economy.

I wondered about peeling the potatoes in the restaurant. Do potatoes peeled by hand really taste different from potatoes peeled with the peeling machine?

Was that something Joseph Sisko said to Jake, because it sounds familiar...

 

[Finn]

Being able to live and work in the heart of New Orleans seems pretty awesome (even if it looks suspiciously like a generic New York set).

Outside of the French Quarter, some of the downtown areas could pass for a street scene in New York City

 

[Mudd]

"Barter" answers no questions.

What's under discussion is scarcity of desirable property - this is a basic unanswered question about Trek's nonsensical utopian "post-scarcity civilization."

Barter is a rather crude and unsatisfactory means of transferring ownership of such things. Even if people in a complex civilization start with barter, they're going to innovate beyond it for all the reasons that we already have, in many places and times, and be right back to some variation of currency.