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To: A CA Guy
"I knew the writers were out of their minds when they said there was no such thing as money in the future (in a past movie with the Borg) and everybody worked for the common good. (COMMUNISM) "

No, not communism. In Trek, any physical item can be replicated faster and easier than burning a copy of a CD is today, so each person is able to aquire what they need/want quickly at no cost. Economics as we know it would not exist in such a situation and it would be as if every person was wealthy.

Freed from the need to aquire money, they devote their time to the pursuits that interest them most. They are not pooling the results of their labour and dividing them up.
28 posted on 12/11/2002 8:52:34 PM PST by Grig
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To: Grig; A CA Guy
There's some interesting back-story material on economics in the Trek universe. For example, When Picard's Enterprise first encounters the Ferengi, they identify gold as a valuable commodity. However, per established Star Trek canon, Federation replicators can make gold. This would cause it to become worthless. Subsequently, the writers had the Ferengi use "Gold-pressed Latinum" as a monetary standard. According to the back-story item, this is because replicators cannot duplicate the metal.

All of the series hint that there is no value in consumer goods. The only things the characters ever place any value in are items that can't be replicated, such as latinum, tribbles, antiques, and the like.
54 posted on 12/16/2002 8:47:25 AM PST by Redcloak
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