The Economics of the Future

Written by: Captain Rachel Daninburg

There is an economy in 2381, on Earth, on every Federation member world, and on every world where there is an exchange of something external of the body in exchange for something else, whether it's a good or a service.

Without getting into a lesson on Economics 101, let's just all accept as axiomatic what's listed below. Otherwise, we're going to get nowhere, and our SIMming will continue to be polluted by Paramount's wholesale abandonment of a gaping hole in common sense it's refused to close, like a seeping wound, ever since 1966.

Axioms

Axiom 1: Standardization is Necessary for the Exchange of Anything.: The nature of rendering goods and services REQUIRES standardization for value of such. Without standard values, no one would have any clue how much work to do, how much stuff to give in exchange for other stuff, etc. This BASIC concept is CENTRAL to barter, let alone to the use of a medium of exchange.

Axiom 2: Barter is Primitive: I have heard people over the years, in and out of UFOP, as an attempt to explain the monster Paramount has created with it's silly writing, say that the Federation has simply "graduated" to an advanced form of barter. Not likely.

Barter is imprecise. You can define only gross value, and this, like having a small vocabulary, prevents precision. An advanced economy, which runs hand in hand with an advanced society, would perforce have MORE precision, not LESS. Arguing advanced bartering is like saying that the further the Federation advances, the smaller the language becomes. And we saw what happened when Orwell hypothesized eliminating words.

It also has the drawback of not being "fungible," which means you can't take the service rendererd to you in exchange for one you rendered and buy something with it. You have to perform a new service. Or trade something else you own. Clumsy.

Axiom 3: Medium of Exchange is Necessary: Since axiom requires standard values for goods and services on which people agree (the market), and since barter cannot meet the need for precision in moving set amounts of these goods and services, you need a symbol: money. The most primative cultures VERY quickly develop a medium of exchange with, over time, increasingly stable value. African nations in the pre-colonial period used seashells of a particular type. All ancient and European cultures used coins. The Chinese used paper notes. EVERYONE used a medium which was fungible and which can be used to buy or trade.

Axiom 4: Medium of Exchange Yields to Virtual Currency: As time goes on, the trend is NOT toward eliminating MONEY, just toward eliminating the PHYSICAL medium. But for all our ATMs and credit cards, we still move MONEY. And we will, as long as there is a civilization of human minds. No getting around it. We still track the number of dollars, yen, etc, we have, even if we trend toward not carrying it. One can imagine a far more developed, Federation wide data net which keeps track of such things so that, as Kirk said in ST4, "we don't use money." It doesn't mean the concept doesn't exist. Which in turn leads us to...

Explanations

Explanation 1: The Federation Recognizes the Concept of Personal Wealth: In Deep Space 9, Ben's dad owns a restaraunt. From where does he get his supply? Where does Jean-Luc Picard sell his wine? From where does he get his equipment? Where did Ben Sisko get his stuff to make a solar sailing ship? All of these things mean SOMETHING is changing hands. SOMETHING rewards the dockworkers who fit out our ships, run our academies, and do the billions of civilian jobs which keep the Federation running. And human nature being what it is, people want stuff. Oh, the stuff changes over the years, but people like their comforts and pleasures, so there will continue to be a market for massage, distractions, games, vacations. How do people pay for the fine means Mr. Sisko serves? How do they pay for their trips to Risa? With SOMETHING. If it's not money, its credits. It HAS to be.

Explanation 2: Credits have Value Outside the Federation: Right now, each nation on Earth backs its money with reserved gold, which is why gold is important. If a nation's reserve bank is robbed, the money has no value. The same concept must apply to the Federation in order for Federation citizens to do business outside the Federation as has been countless times portrayed in all five shows and all 10 movies. On Deep Space 9, Federation people did not spend credits, or bet credits, they bet bars and strips ot latinum, which reminded me all the time of how Northmen during the Middle Ages would trade with Christendom: They would use hacksilver and amber, which had value in coin and vice versa. I'm sure the latinum is more precise. But just like banks do now, and like money changers did before, I am certain Federation people on DS9 can change credits for latinum to spend at Nog's and can change the strips they win at Dabbo back to credits.

Explanation 3: There is Something Akin to a "Corporate" Culture in and out of the Federation: Corporations are vile, evil things, of this I have always been certain, and they must be heeled like dogs, but they serve a function, which is to take person to person commerce, a concept which has innate limitations, and render it on a large scale. Mercantile Priakos, Coasters, Guilds and other entities were the forerunners to the company structures of the 1600's and the corporations of today. They are a way to move large amounts of goods, services and medium of exchange. Aside from clear and not clear references to such entities over the years in various episodes and movies, these entities MUST exist in order for the Orion pirates to have something to raid, in order for the Federation to be just a government instead of BIG BROTHER, provding for every want and need. Can anyone guess how large the bureacracy would have to be if the Federation did it all?

Explanation 4: The Economy of 2381 is Like, but not Alike to Ours: Imagine and sim that the Economy of 2381 is a kindler, gentler, far more and better regulated, and far more egalitarian, version of what we have now. Within the four axioms and explanations above we can all see how socialist principles could operate to eliminate poverty, to cap personal wealth, ensure personal responsibility for mercantile malfeasance (something we don't have now, to our never ending embarassment and despair) and thus cure the inequality of wealth which produces so much ignorance, strife, bigotry and the like.

Thus the economy of 2381 is like, without being ALIKE, to ours. In 2381, you still use virtual credits, earned by your job, which, no matter how skilled or unskilled, has a minimum comfortable living wage attached to it, to eat at Sisko's, or gamble at Nog's. Or you earn from your business, which is regulated to prevent unfair taxes, abuse of employees, etc. In other words, the mega rich and dirt poor of Earth 2004 are gone, replaced by people who know that while there is a gap between what you can earn sweeping floors at the Academy and what you earn as a Federation senator, the gap isn't so large as to demean the dignity of the work, and since everyone has universal access to standardized education, people choose their work, doing what they want, instead of their work choosing them.

THAT's what makes 2381 a time for which to strive and to envy.