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Can Star Trek's World With No Money Work In Real life? (cnn.com)
The economics of the Star Trek universe were discussed at New York Comic Con on Sunday. Paul Krugman was among the panelists who debated whether a world without money could actually work. CNN reports: "Star Trek has dared to 'boldly go where no man has gone before' — including a world without money. 'One of the things that's interesting about Star Trek is that it does try to imagine a post-scarcity economy where there's no money. People don't work for it. People don't work because they have to but because they want to,' said Annalee Newitz, the editor of Gawker's io9 blog. Newitz -- along with Nobel Prize winner and economist Paul Krugman, 'Treknomics' author Manu Saadia, economics professor Brad DeLong, Fusion's Felix Salmon and Star Trek writer Chris Black -- discussed economics through the lens of the Star Trek world at a New York Comic Con panel Sunday."
Not everyone in the Star Trek universe works at Star Fleet.
Besides, for many, many people, career advancement is a means, not an end. I mean, how does convince space hookers when their only incentive is goodwill?
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Star Trek played round with the concept of "Money". Star Trek played around with a lot of things. Remember Chekov? A few shows in, how was it that there were no Russians in the Federation? The concept of a "Chekov" is inherently funny, and at that time, subversive.
"Money" is something easy to comprehend. Pirenne argues that there never was a "Barter Economy" during the "Dark Ages". Two Goats might be valued the same as a Milk Cow, or a younger, otherwise useless, Daughter, in an isolated 13th Century French Village. People always understood the concept of Value. But Value is not Universal. Tulips may be valued highly in certain places, and not valued at all elsewhere.
"Money" made sorting it all out so much easier, and Charlemange's insistence on replacing Roman Gold with European Silver, divisible into smaller amounts that made so much more sense, led the way to the "Champagne Fairs". Regular occasions where Goat Accounts are settled, Loans are made again, and Chilvaric Knights, with no longer naive concepts of Chivalry, could bind their services to the highest bidder. In Silver.
The 14th Century was an utter horror.
Back to Star Trek.
The Ferengi were wonderful. Self-Obsessed and squalid. Libertarians with Sillier Ears.
But pay attention to the Federation concept of Value, not Money. Some may say that Value in the Federation is rewarded by promotions; a valuable Career in and of itself, and not by the acquisition of Money.
But even in Star Trek, people do silly things because they find these silly things Valuable, if only to themselves.
In a Post-Scarcity Economy, how does One reward Value, if Value is wanting of Reward?
Probably not in Tulip Bulbs.
In a way, we are in a Post-Scarcity environment.
Say you are Actor. You can take two Mill for yet another mindless Action Flick, or you can go for The Ring- $100K , and a chance at an Oscar. What do you do?
Say you are Physicist. You can sell your Soul to Wall Street in Derivatives Trading, or you can round out that skimpy Thesis in Double-Proton Decay, that you spent a Decade earlier pursuing, in a stingy DOE Lab. What do you do?
Say you are Programmer...
(Oh, why bother... you can tell them by the Ears.)