Comments on: Star Trek: How We Will Abolish Money

By: Felix

Felix — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:55:41 +0000

As said in the article, people should work hard with the benefit of the society in mind and not just themselves. We live in a selfish, materialistic society so people can’t grasp the concept of working without material reward. If people find something that they love to do, they’ll do it without complaint and if it makes other people happy, that’s even better. Money, contrary to what we believe today, hinders progress my friend.

By: Advance

Advance — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:10:19 +0000

Money is not the problem. Money if used properly is an excellent tool in measuring the value of human weath (good and services). What damages our system is the 6000+ year old system of charging for the use of it. Money interest must be abolished and a new modern system instituted. With a modern money system free of interest the humans on earth will be able to not only do an excellent job managing the earth. They will also become excellent managers of our Solar System and begin steps to interact with older more advanced creatures in the Almighty God’s Creation

By: John

John — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:21:32 +0000

As has been stated before, money is not the only commodity in the universe. Rank was basically the Star Trek way of determining who got what. You earned rank by proving yourself, just as you would at any job.

I think that people fail to realize that, in the future, almost every person will be raised and educated properly. There will be few psychological issues and people will not covet or fear things nearly as much as they do now.

The basic outline of Star Trek is that people’s curiosity and desire to become more than they are, is what truly causes us to evolve. If all mankind thinks about is survival and gratification, we’ll never live in a Utopian society. Ironic isn’t it?

By: Don

Don — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:03:39 +0000

Do you know how long I’ve worked my butt of at my job? Do you think my employers care about anything except how much they can wring out of me?

Hard work is never rewarded and is barely compensated for. Doing great things that you were never expected to, are what you and everyone else should be doing.

Of course, if you’re a selfish bastard, our current economic system is perfect. That’s why we need to teach people the right way to do things, not the way that earns THEM the most.

By: Nick

Nick — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:33:23 +0000

Don’t forget that in all the ST series we are dealing with a military unit. The closest contemporary situation is probably that of a nuclear submarine crew on a long mission (although not as long as Enterprise’s “5 year mission to boldly go…”).
In this situation all normal needs are met without the need for a medium of exchange.
Only in DS9 do we see the civilian support infrastructure and so there we see Quark’s bar.
I suspect that outside the military there would be some form of allowing replicator credits above subsistence level as a reward for work.

By: Phill

Phill — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:40:37 +0000

Sort of an oddity is Quarks Bar.
Why pay for a drink when you can replicate it?

By: ben

ben — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:13:45 +0000

Nah, i would not like a tyrannical empire of evil supervillans ruling over society with an iro fist, wait, i just described the Bush administration.

By: ryan

ryan — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:55:05 +0000

As both an economist and an avid Star Trek fan, my friends (also Trekkies) would ask how can we make the switch to not having money. The real problem here is not that you are working only for money, but that money and prices determine how valuable things are to society.

Here is a good sci-fi example. You have a someone who wants to be a scientist. It is his life’s goal, but he is terrible at math and because of this handicap he works his whole life never producing anything of interest or value. Should he be able to have such a high standard of living? He doesn’t contribute anything to society.

Also, even with transporter technology, there will still be scarcity (only so much of everything to go around) so does everyone who wants one get a galaxy class star ship. Who doesn’t get one? Does the scientist get one?

Money solves this problem via prices, prices tell us how valuable things are. Without something to replace the price mechanism this system could not work.

And to answer a few posts above, it is also the major hurdle to communism, even assuming perfect morals.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:06:43 +0000

Actually in Archer’s time, there were no replicators, hence having a chef. Energy was cleaner thanks to the discovery of controlled anti-matter reacion but the conversion of energy to matter was barely in it’s infancy.

I am now going to take a suicide pill for knowing that…

By: DJ

DJ — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:51:12 +0000

While Star Trek talks about there being no money or pay in some episodes they clearly pay for things in other episodes. In Star Trek they have vacation worlds; in ST:NG they have vacation worlds, purchases, owned land, and negotiate with aliens; in ST:DS9 they have Quark’s bar, the commander’s father’s restaurant, and deal with traders from the other quadrant; in ST:E we don’t see pay, but we do see them buying things. Only in Voyager do we see a real lack of money, and that’s even hinted at in the opening show with references to ownership of land.
So yes, ideology was grand, but even Roddenberry couldn’t figure out how to avoid showing buying and selling, not to mention ownership.

And energy has never been the key to money. Land has always been the key. You can make more energy, you can make energy cheaper, you can not make more land, you can only find more habitable planets. Which in Star Trek probably have people on it. Even in ST:NG Picard was talking to his brother about plans to raise the seabed to make more land and how he would get some of it.

By: Phill

Phill — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:25:57 +0000

The USSR was never communist to begin with.
True communism is far too advanced for Earths societies to live by.
Despite what Trekkies may say, the Fderation is true communism. And it aint bad at all.
Though I personally would prefer a Star Wars type universe than Trek.
Love both though

By: ben

ben — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:18:51 +0000

yeah it does have a shade of communism but Russia isn’t communist anymore and there is no soviet union.

In other news we cant abolish money, as if a man who is CEO of a huge company working 20 hour days gets the same benifits as a street cleaner what is the incentive to work hard and innovate?

By: Rejean

Rejean — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:30:54 +0000

Hey what about Deep Space 9?
Quarks Bar? There is money in Star Trek and those who are very interested in it.

By: Annonymous

Annonymous — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:25:39 +0000

You people need to stop watching so damn much tv. Go on! Go outside and play…GIT!

By: Brenton Eccles

Brenton Eccles — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 07:51:19 +0000

There is a way for us to end money, and even if we don’t chose to end money as humanity it’s going to have to go.
Because, as technology continues on it’s path of automation the need for a human labor force will be continually diminished and people wont be able to obtain money to support the economy.
I suggest considering the Zeitgeist Movement, which is a social organisation with over 250,000 members and will (by our current growth rate) have over 1 million members by 2010. We advocate a Resource-based Economy.
It probably all sounds confusing to you, but it’s well worth investigating this possibility of a better future for humanity. Go to TheZeitgeistMovement.com