Oh, I agree. In the dialogue I quoted, the boys were trying to buy a rare, Willie Mays rookie card, to give to Captain Sisko. How would items like that be obtained with no money?
I’m not saying socialism would work in a world with the technology available in the fantasy Star Trek world, but it would be somewhat less problematic than it is in the real world, as the fundamental problem of “running out of other people’s money” would be greatly diminished.
I suppose it could also be argued that if all people’s needs were abundantly met by technology, the culture might evolve to become less fixated on obtaining material wealth and people would seek the status they get from owning a mansion or a fancy car, by some combination of doing good works for society or by achieving great things, like discovering new planets, or cures to diseases, etc.
Personally, I think that most would end up more like the fat, lazy people in “Wall-E” than the noble, selfless people of Star Trek, though.
In ST, we’re seeing the elite of the elite. Even the janitors and bartenders will, under such exotic conditions, be selected for being the top 0.0001%th percentile. Such people can’t not be their very best, they have an innate irresistible drive.
Marx:
In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly—only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!
Hey, watch it. I resemble that remark.