Screw using the holodeck for furthering the knowledge of mankind - I want 3D interactive real life porn!
You might as well ask the same question about any scientific simulations that are done right now in the real world.
The Star Trek answer is, of course, because then they try it and it saves the day and the music plays and the credits roll.
There was still an economy of scarcity as to dilithium, right? It could not be replicated. Some sort of exchange must have been taking place around those crystals. And someone had to be mining them, even if he or she was just pushing a button like George Jetson.
Commander Troi of TNG, perhaps.
Well, there was also Sterotypical Irish Guy in the 1st season who complained that the replicated whiskey had “no bite” 
Re: Money - Didn’t Riker speak both of these lines at different times:
“I don’t carry money.”
“That’s why they pay me the big money!”
I’d also assume that the Federation would need some form of currency, if not for internal use then for trading with non-Federation planets.
The comment on wages (in “The Doomsday Machine”, and, I was surprised to hear, also in “The Apple,” I think, was clearly metaphorical. However, Uhura must of had credits to buy the tribbles with, so there must be some kind of pay. She got it free, of course, but she was ready to pay. Plus, if everything was free, why did Cyrano try to steal the drinks? And why did Spock say he eked out a living?
Maybe everyone got an equal amount of money (like Mack Reynolds’ common basic) and took a job if they spent it all or wanted more for some reason. I’m sure starships like Cyrano’s weren’t free, and were too big to be synthesized.
Didn’t we already do this joke?
Wasn’t there also a line in that episode where the captain said something like, ‘I’ll bet credits to Navy beans we can damage it.’?
Never mind, I found it. It’s from Cat’s Paw:
They pay him…he just doesn’t carry it. It’s obvious, those uniforms don’t have pockets.
Well, after all, DS9 contained what was essentially a shopping mall. I would find it hard to believe that all the proprietors of all the shops are doing it for their “betterment”.
For instance, Garak’s tailor shop. Cardassians aren’t even part of the Federation, are they? And, of course, Quark is “all about the latinum”–obviously, some form of currency has to be in use, even if it’s a “currency-less” society. And the mere presence of the Ferengi–not to mention their prosperity–tells me that there is money changing hands.
Let’s go back even further: in “Mudd’s Women”, a reference is made to “rich dilithium miners”. So obviously the Federation has some monetary system, otherwise how could they pay the miners the big bucks?
My take on it is that money may not be as important in the ST universe as it was in the past, but it is still very necessary.
Sure they did - at least a small pocket for carrying those small phasers 
I know what you’re saying, though. Before I got my driver’s license back I rarely carried cash because I walked or bicycled everywhere, often in the dark. Instead I used a debit card for everything.
let Wesley save us.
I think part of the rationale for the Federation’s way of life was there had essentially been a sea change in human society, evolving past/moving away from “primitive” economic motivations much as it had from tribal shamanism and human sacrifice.
(So…a wizard did it. A wizard with advanced energy generation, matter replication, and social engineering chops, but a wizard, none the less.)
It’s also possible, I suppose, that money was being/has been phased out over the years from TOS to Voyager. Maybe some regions or walks of life were still using a free market (or something) system, while others had gone on to (forgive me) functional True Communism.
Of course, it’s possible some of the more idealistic/utopian statements made by characters were essentially…well, made by the “Party Loyalist” types. They’re not completely true, although the characters either think they are, like to gloss over the details to “outsiders,” or just force themselves to believe—perhaps occasionally mentally adding an asterisk after “we don’t need money in the Federation” for those special cases of “well, except for a neccesary evil or two that we’re still working on” or “except for those deviant moneygrubbing throwbacks.”
That’s not to say that the Federation couldn’t actually be doing a good job at running things—just that they, and/or homo sapiens, aren’t the be-all and end-all of civilization that they like to make themselves out to be.
Well, of course the economics presented on the show are inconsistent, since nobody ever sat down and worked out exactly how economics in the 22nd, 23rd and 24th centuries worked. And even if they had, they couldn’t have enforced that vision on the hundreds of writers and directors who worked on all the various versions of the shows.
But when you have replicators that can manufacture anything out of thin air, it seems reasonable to me that “we don’t use money anymore” is a good first approximation. Nobody on Earth has to work for a living. You can sit around, eat replicated food, post on the holoDope, wear replicated clothing, and so on. Your physical needs can be provided easily.
And if you can manufacture anything you like with your replicator, keeping closets full of clothes, or shelves full of books, or any material possession beyond a few keepsakes seems ridiculous. Which is why the Federation ships we see seems so spartan. Nobody has piles of junk lying around because you can make anything you like any time you like. Displaying ostentatious wealth is stupid because it’s not really wealth, anyone and everyone can make the same things.
Not everything can be replicated, real estate being the prime example. But people who crave vast tracts of land can migrate offworld and become a colonist.
However, there still has to be some way to allocate those resources that can’t be replicated, like land on Earth. There have been many flat statements that money doesn’t exist in Star Trek, but also many flat statements about getting paid, or paying for things. Of course this is contradictory. But it might be essentially true…most average people never buy or sell anything, they never accumulate goods, every material need is provided for, not by the “state” but by replicator. And the replicators don’t need to be provided either, since the first thing you do with your replicator is build another replicator.
But humans crave status. So owning a restaurant despite the fact that it doesn’t provide you more material goods makes sense not economically but socially. My brother here in the 21st century brews a prodigious amount of beer and mead, and gives most of it away. He does this because he likes to and he can’t drink everything himself. So Sisko’s father could run a restaurant just because he likes to. And the people he serves don’t pay with money, they pay with more subtle social currency, just like people who throw elaborate dinner parties today don’t charge their guests. And Sisko’s dad gets farm-grown vegetables from farmers who don’t want money, they want to be seen as the kind of guy who grows the vegetables that are used at Sisko’s famous restaurant.
And my theory is, this is exactly how Starfleet works. Starfleet isn’t a government or an arm of the goverment. There might be a government somewhere behind the scenes, but we never really see it. Starfleet is just a group of spaceflight hobbyists, who all agree to build spaceships and fly them around the galaxy together because it’s FUN. Most people on Earth think Starfleet people are dorks for doing all this hard complicated stuff when they could just sit around and watch HoloTV all day. The people we see on the show are not typical citizens, they’re weirdos.
And so the statement “We don’t use money anymore in the 24th century” is kind of true, in the same sense that you could say “We don’t have slavery anymore in the 21st century”. There ARE flat-out slaves, there are people who work in conditions that aren’t technically slavery but are pretty coercive, and so on. But it isn’t incorrect to say we’ve abolished slavery.
If you don’t know whether or not the Cardassians are in the Federation, what the hell are you doing in a Star Trek thread?
I KNEW I should have bought craigs list stock :smack:
blll
“But when you have replicators that can manufacture anything out of thin air”
'Nother person is Not Paying Attenion. :mad:
…
Why does this topic infuriate me so? I don’t even like Star Trek.
I just had a horrid vision!
Imagine Packrats or hoarders with access to a replicator :eek:
I bet thats how the Borg got started!
Blll
I think you’re on to something.
Imagine a crazy cat lady with a holodeck.
Riker runs an “old flame” on Risa:
Is that a credit pouch in the front of your pants, Willie, or are you just excited to see me again?
- “Jack”