7 ms·

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Star Trek style economics no economics? I seem to remember a distinguished bald captain talking about how society has moved

by SubZero 13y ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Star Trek style economics no economics? I seem to remember a distinguished bald captain talking about how society has moved past the need for money.

hebz0rl 13y ago
Economics is not money. Its about how to allocate the limited resources in the most efficient way. Money is just a tool used for example in capitalism.
- dcc1 13y ago
  When you have technologies like replication and warp drives and your federation is off colonising multiple planets in an area 8000 light years wide your civilisation is not worried about limited resources interestingly enough in star trek they still have constraints on things like dilithium, and of course wars are waged over territories
  - davidw 13y ago
    You're always going to have things that are scarce. They might not be the things that are scarce today, but not everyone can have everything.
    - VladRussian2 13y ago
      >You're always going to have things that are scarce. They might not be the things that are scarce today, but not everyone can have everything. you forgot the Continuum - they have no scarcity at all, so no economics (yet, surprise!, they still have politics)
  - chadwickthebold 13y ago
    but no constraints on ham sandwiches
- dragonwriter 13y ago
  > Economics is not money. Its about how to allocate the limited resources in the most efficient way. At least some presentations of Star Trek (or, at least, Federation) "economics" were that it was not economics; not having money was a symptom of that, but the fundamental thing presented was that scarcity was solved because resources were not practically limited (which is why they didn't have money.) (Of course, there was a whole lot presented at other times that seems to be at odds with that.)
dragonwriter 13y ago
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Star Trek style economics no economics? "Star Trek economics" was an incoherent mess where the explanations given didn't match what people were actually shown doing. I suppose, in that respect, its pretty much like economics everywhere.

by SubZero 13y ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Star Trek style economics no economics? I seem to remember a distinguished bald captain talking about how society has moved past the need for money.

hebz0rl 13y ago

Economics is not money. Its about how to allocate the limited resources in the most efficient way. Money is just a tool used for example in capitalism.

dcc1 13y ago
When you have technologies like replication and warp drives and your federation is off colonising multiple planets in an area 8000 light years wide your civilisation is not worried about limited resources interestingly enough in star trek they still have constraints on things like dilithium, and of course wars are waged over territories
- davidw 13y ago
  You're always going to have things that are scarce. They might not be the things that are scarce today, but not everyone can have everything.
  - VladRussian2 13y ago
    >You're always going to have things that are scarce. They might not be the things that are scarce today, but not everyone can have everything. you forgot the Continuum - they have no scarcity at all, so no economics (yet, surprise!, they still have politics)
- chadwickthebold 13y ago
  but no constraints on ham sandwiches
dragonwriter 13y ago
> Economics is not money. Its about how to allocate the limited resources in the most efficient way. At least some presentations of Star Trek (or, at least, Federation) "economics" were that it was not economics; not having money was a symptom of that, but the fundamental thing presented was that scarcity was solved because resources were not practically limited (which is why they didn't have money.) (Of course, there was a whole lot presented at other times that seems to be at odds with that.)

dragonwriter 13y ago

> Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Star Trek style economics no economics? "Star Trek economics" was an incoherent mess where the explanations given didn't match what people were actually shown doing. I suppose, in that respect, its pretty much like economics everywhere.