Whenever there’s a storyline with quark, they talk about money/latinum.

I remember in one of the next gen episodes that there was discussion about money and Picard said something about how they’ve moved away from money.

So do Starfleet get paid now?

Update: thank you for the quick responses. From what I’m gathering the tldr is that the following is the answer

  • Ferengi love for money/not being a post scarcity society by design
  • Bajorans being so near their slavery times and not post scarcity yet
  • Quark creating an atmosphere of camaraderie/gambling/upgraded replicators/actual food

All this requires some form of currency.

  • LastYearsPumpkin@feddit.chEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Star Trek was pretty inconsistent with money. Riker often gambled for money, and they certainly treated specific items as “valuable” (historical items, weapons, and especially liquor.)

    I think some of the writers just didn’t know how to picture a post-money world. But by DS9 they mostly treated things like latinum an inter-species trading valuable (especially to/from the Ferengi) or just something that’s needed in the outskirts of the Federation.

    • VindictiveJudge@startrek.websiteEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      and they certainly treated specific items as “valuable” (historical items, weapons, and especially liquor.)

      Historical items definitely have non-monetary value. They can’t truly be replaced since, no matter how accurate the replica, only the one chair will be the Enterprise-A’s captain’s chair, for example. Replicators have software restrictions on what you can make with them, so you can’t just replicate weapons under normal circumstances, which creates scarcity and gives them value. Starfleet replicators also seem to be restricted from creating alcohol, which means most of the characters we see can only get it on shore leave, which also creates scarcity and therefor value. Alcohol is probably significantly less scarce when sourced through civilian replicators. The ones on DS9 are programmed with Starfleet’s restrictions, though.

      • LastYearsPumpkin@feddit.chEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        That’s my point though. They don’t really address how McCoy got the glasses he gave to Kirk in Star Trek II. Did he buy them? Did he just ask someone for them? Did he barter for them for services?

        Same thing with alcohol, some people pull out alcohol they obtained through some back alley, black market deal. But what was traded for this black market alcohol?

  • VindictiveJudge@startrek.websiteEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    DS9 is a Bajoran station, not a Federation one. The Bajoran economy is not post-scarcity and still runs on money. Either Starfleet officers get a stipend to purchase things when posted on such assignments, or Quark simply bills Starfleet. Either way, Starfleet/the UFP likely has a reserve of latinum and other resources for trade with other nations.

    • aredditimmigrant@endlesstalk.orgOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Ok so next question. If the computer can magically create anything. And they are on almost all space stations (including cardassian/federation ones) what’s the point of a bar?

      Gambling makes sense. Paying for food/drink when you have a replicator doesn’t.

      • Melmi@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        You can buy alcohol cheap from a store in real life, along with all the ingredients to make drinks, yet people still go to bars where cocktails cost more than a meal. They’re not going just because of superior bartending skills, they’re going as part of the experience of drinking with other people. Because on DS9, your other option is basically to drink in your quarters, which is no fun.

        There are more options for food on DS9, but people still go to Quark’s for the atmosphere. It’s lively and fun, which is probably hard to come by otherwise on a remote space station. I doubt people are coming to Quark’s in droves for the food though, it’s more just something you get if you’re already there.

    • Neato@kbin.social
      1·
      1 year ago

      The Bajoran economy is not post-scarcity

      So I understand the above items (latinum being the most important and fungible) being non-replicatable. But at the point where Starfleet is permanently on your station and has easy access to both replicators and infinite energy, why aren’t the Bajorans also post-scarcity? You’d think that tech, while powerful, is a far more important thing to trade for and Starfleet has an incentive to uplift societies it isn’t at war with to prevent scarcity wars and instability.