The answer is that it wasn’t well thought-out and isn’t realistic. You might as well ask why the men of Star Trek use the holodeck to role play Sherlock Holmes mysteries instead of having orgies with teenage girls.
Sure, why not? In Transmetropolitan you could either get your hands on expensive “base blocks” of “neutral matter”, or else you had to scavenge lots of trash to get elements for your replicator, assuming you even had one. Or did they say on Star Trek that replicators materialize things out of thin air, only needing enough energy to power a few light bulbs? In The Diamond Age the destitute have access to slow public replicators that offer some basic food and clothing for free.
My understanding is that the Federation internally does not use money. However, those who work in Starfleet do get an allowance to help them interact with those outside the Federation. It’s also possible that individual planets within the system may have money for their own uses.
You definitely can get replicators on Earth. Robert and his family didn’t have one only because he didn’t like “conveniences.” As he was able to find a wife who was okay with that, it seems there may be a group who stays on Earth and likes to stick with “the old ways.” Maybe they have money among themselves, or at least barter. That said, since Robert seems to do the work himself, he may not actually make all that much wine.
Not everything can be replicated. On a Starship, at least, wine (and other alcoholic beverages) is one of them. Only synthehol is allowed, even when they are off duty or for the civilians aboard. It would seem that the existence of such things would mean that there could be some sort of economy.
When we see trade on a ship-to-ship level, it is just that, trade. They seem to fall back on barter. In Voyager, this is pretty much all they can do without any sort of currency exchange. But they also do it in TNG on occasion. The credit stuff seems to be on an individual level only.
At the end of this clip Kirk says they don’t use money in the future. STAR TREK IV
They also said women couldn’t be starship captains, and Kirk specifically told Scotty that “he’d earned his pay for the week.”
They tended to say a lot of things.
cite? That would be disappointing.
Not disappointing to me, but there’s a TOS episode–I can’t identify it right now by searching–where Scotty likes some single young lady who’s serving aboard the Enterprise, and Kirk comments that someday she’ll meet a man and get married, and that will be the end of her Starfleet career. It was just a given at the time the show was made that married women didn’t work. Fast forward 18 years (real life time) to TNG, and there are married couples with children aboard the Enterprise with the women working as research scientists.
Unsurprisingly, Gene Roddenberry’s view, outlook, and presuppositions changed, just like anybody else’s can.
Scotty in love was “Light of Zetar.” The episode that highlighted the “women can’t be Captains” was “Turnabout Intruder.”
All of this can be explained by inherited wealth. Even the credits/latinum/etc. that Picard used to charter a ship and bribe can be explained by selling or trading a unique product (real wine w/ a famous name) outside the mainstream economic system. It even adds to Raffi’s criticism since Picard is privileged enough to benefit from generations of his ancestors’ labor in a way impossible for ordinary people. He’s basically part of the 1%.
It is simultaneously spooky and cool that you know that.
Scotty earned his pay in The Doomsday Machine, and Chekov earned his pay in Who Mourns For Adonis.
And in the Enlightened 24th Century, Picard forced a female subordinate to transfer to another ship because he had feelings for her. That’s a trip to HR and a lawsuit in our unenlightened 21st century.
What did Scotty do in “The Doomsday Machine” that made him earn is pay?
Scotty was always pulling a rabbit out of his hat but in the Star Trek: TNG episode “Relics” Scotty tells LaForge to never give an honest answer to how long something will take to repair. Tell the captain some longer time so you seem like a miracle worker doing it in less time.
Made the phasers work, apparently. Here’s the exchange, as quoted on IMDB:
Perfect answer! Thanks.
Although we do not know if Kirk literally meant he earned his salary or if it was just a quip.
Folks, you’re talking about an entertainment franchise that has two artificial intelligences treated as sentient beings, while both of those AI are treating other AI as simple machines. Why get caught up in the economics with that abuse happening left and right?
You’re right.
Let’s close Cafe Society. Talking about fictional things is dumb. /s
That’s not my point. If you’re going to talk about something not thought out in the ST universe, what about the slaughter of the artificial intelligences in the series?
Of course I’m having at myself since I already participated in the discussion of the economics.
I think it is worthwhile because it is fun to think it out.
We all know it is make-believe.
The Internet was founded on discussions literally just like this.
Deep Space Nine is in Bajoran space that was recently Cardassian space, not the Federation, and the bar is run by Ferengi. Pretty sure that for economic purposes, at least within the bar, they’re outside the Federation economy.
Not everyone wants a mansion or super-yacht? They’ll have something else instead.
TOS seems to have had more money, or at least more familiarity with the concept (even if Kirk had the lady pay for pizza in The Voyage Home, but I suspect that if the crew had searched the seat cushions for change Klingon coins would not have been legal tender on 20th Century Earth). Even if as far back as TOS they didn’t use money as we know it on Earth the crews going out to the stars would have had some grasp of the concept and would either be issued/acquire same.
Money as we know it might be for the Federation what barter is to us - in theory, we’re a money economy but most all of us barter/trade from time to time on a small scale. The Federation might have some sort of minor tokens for the purpose.
Or everyone is guaranteed a certain base level of goods and energy but if you want more you have to earn it. So you don’t need money (the base might be a pretty nice life by our standards) but those who are more productive get more on top of that.
The franchise never got deeply into how the economics at home work, and maybe that’s all for the better.
^ This.
Although I suspect there’s a group of people in the Federation who only eat replicated food for ethical reasons, or something of the sort.