[<1/1,000,000th%]

Star Trek lost me as a fan years ago when they dropped capitalism from the future. A post office style economy can't build starships, so the whole series became absurd.

You've nailed it!

Has anyone ever heard a decent rationalization of how the Federation economy worked?

[ReveBM]

Maybe they use lots and lots of robots?

[Dr. Frank fan]

Has anyone ever heard a decent rationalization of how the Federation economy worked?

Sure, we've all heard such a rationalization: "From each according to his needs, to each according to his ability."

They do call it science fiction, after all :)

[VietVet]

They have the transporters and the synthesizers, so manufacturing and short range transportation are no longer economic considerations. Energy is, but appears to be even more plentiful than water today.

Long range commerce seems to be largely in luxury goods. Remember some of Quark's trading concessions?

I don't think that the Star Trek universe's economics stands up to scrutiny any better than its physics or its military science.

[PatrickHenry]

Has anyone ever heard a decent rationalization of how the Federation economy worked?

In Kirk's day the federation economy seemed to be more or less like ours. They had dilithium miners out there, trying to get rich (battling the horta), and there was that fat slob of a trader who sold them the tribbles. Only in the next series -- with Cpt. Pickard and that idiot "counselor" with the jugs whose job was announcing her feelings -- did the economy vanish, as in a Hollywood scriptwriter's Bolshevik fantasy.

[Future Snake Eater]

Yeah, Earth in the Star Trek universe is the perfect utopia realized. Everyone does what they're supposed to do, no one tries to be greedy (and the ones that are greedy get it in the end, i.e. Star Trek: Insurrection), and everyone just works to better themselves. Definitely fictitious, but enjoyable nonetheless (except for Voyager).

[Centurion2000]

Has anyone ever heard a decent rationalization of how the Federation economy worked?

Well, in a robot or 'replicator' based economy, physical posssessions would have almost no intrinsic value except for sentimental reasons. Additional worlds would relieve real estate pressures for living space and transporters would certainly remove the requirement for a lot of private vehicles.

Labor would still be expensive .... this could be a post on it's own. How replicator based economies would work.