Wow - I’ve just had my affection for the Federation and what it stands for well and truly buried. Alive. Screaming and begging for mercy.
Just wondering … does anyone remember the first time we heard that the Federation doesn’t use money? Was it in TOS? Or was it a later thing?
I do remember that one of the plot elements of Journey To Babel involved mining rights, so presumably there was some kind of trade happening…
thwartme
Well, except for the $25,000 or so he charged for coffee to that one beeyotch.
I think it was in one of the hundreds of TOS novels that have appeared, that I read where one of the characters owned huge tracts of land on a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri.
IANAE but I would say the economy in ST is not a socialist or communist Utopia but simply an economy where poverty has been eliminated. Private real estate and other property or business need not be abolished.
Now that I think of it, wasn’t Harry Mudd all about making money?
One thing that’s never been clear is whether it’s the Federation as a whole that has abandoned money, or just humans, or just humans living on Earth.
There was the DS9 episode involving Ezri’s family and their mining operations; they made a deal with an Orion Syndicate loan shark, indicating that their business was money-driven. But Trill is a Federation world.
Then there was the mysterious Vash from TNG and DS9, an apparent human and Federation citizen who was an obsessed profiteer anyway. (One wonders what good being a profiteer is in a society without money, but it seems like she spent most of her time elsewhere.)
The Bolians apparently have a central bank, because it got robbed once.
You weak-minded fool! He’s using an old Jedi mind trick!
In TOS someone (Scotty?) said “I’ll bet you credit to doughnuts.” I asked my mother what that meant. She explained the express was “I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts” meaning if I win I pay dollars, if you win you pay doughnuts, I’m so sure you’ll win, but that money must have been replaced with credit by then.
Interesting speculation: A doctor gets credit of 1500 units a month, a restaurant owner $1000 a manual worker 500?
In the TOS episode Arena, Kirk came across a collection of raw diamonds. He referred to them as “a fortune,” thus implying that they actually had worth. However, in Star Trek IV, he also said that they didn’t use money in the future.
Don’t look for too much consistency here, folks.
And if there’s anything a man wants, it’s huge . . . tracts of land.
…so, how many doughnuts is that?
Lots of things have value, Spiken Flame-Gems, Anterean Glow-Water, Tribbles…
TOS discussed the amount of money that went into Spock’s training but I don’t recall what if any unit of currency was mentioned. Kirk negotiated with those dilithium miners in “Mudd’s Women” but again I don’t recall any units of currency mentioned.
“Credits” were in use in “The Trouble With Tribbles” but it is unclear whether that refers to a Federation currency. McCoy refers to “credits” in ST3 but again it’s not clear whether it’s a federation currency.
The first time I clearly recall the “Federation has no money” was when Picard said it to Lily (was it Lily?) in “First Contact.”
I’ll bet you donuts to quatloos. 
Never mind. Nothing to see here. Move on.
In the beginning of the novelization of the first Star Trek novel, which is officially by Roddenberry, there is a discussion of the “New Human” movement - something Kirk is definitely not a part of. It’s pretty fuzzy, but I would guess that it was in full sway by TNG time. Perhaps new humans would work for the fun of it, and someone running a coffee shop would be like a kid playing store.
As for another example of money in TOS, in The Devil in the Dark Kirk says that the Horta digging tunnels would make the miners very rich. Given the number of people we see in not the best environments, you’d have to guess that they were in it for the money.
What I always wondered, if there’s no money, why play poker?
In ST: First Contact, Picard says that they mostly try to better themselves. So the reason one would own or work in a coffee shop or restaurant would be that one likes making coffee or cooking.
That sounds nice and all, however there are still scarce resources. I mean the Earth doesn’t have infinite landmass and not everyone who wants a home by the sea can have one. Distant colonies clearly don’t have the latest and greatest when it comes to space plague vacines, replicators and generators and whatnot. Certain minerals still need to be mined out of the ground.
So whenever you have scarce resources, you still need some sort of system of barter and exchange.
Well, duh, that’s what the Genesis Project was for!