Star Trek is a world where most advance cultures reach a point of no longer having ‘want’ or at least as portrayed at times in the show among the federation, but as I think more about that - even though it’s Science Fiction, I notice among shows there are still things as businesses, jobs, and even some bare bones of an economy. Thinking on this, I thought of what would make up an interstellar Economy in a setting such as Star Trek, thus I thought of the first big three figures-
- Non-replicatable Matter
- Labor Unions
- Civilian/Public Technologies
These three are the basics of what I think would be important from an economy from a civilian stand point, seeing as not all people are in Star Fleet or an affiliated Military.
- Non-replicatable Matter
- Complex Elements (EX. Latinum, Dilithium)
- Complex Bio-matter (EX. Some medicine (Like TNG) and perhaps some plants or other bio-matter, that would require extensive and expensive cloning)
- Complex Processed Matter (EX. Complex foods or Industrial Material - See ‘Thoughs on Replicators’)
- Labor Unions
There are two subcategories to this: Legal and Illegal
- Legal Market (Unions/Workers)
- Illegal Market (Slaves)
Finally, we have:
- Civilian/Public Technologies
This would be something similar, if not dominated, to something close to the Auto industry, because as shown, people can travel off planet and as seen in movies (Just here me out here, Star Trek: Into Darkness) there are vehicles and others still in the city, thus meaning people can ‘privately’ own or operate things like shuttles or Freighters, as even shown in game by S.S. class ships, which is a common header for most Civilian ships, I.E. not affiliated with a government.
This must mean there is a market of some sort for these objects.
— Thus, my extent or idea is that there is to some degree and Economoy in the Federation, using things like Energy Credits, used to purchase or trade for objects as stated above (Similar to The Dollar in America), used to denote that you’ve done things in society and are acquiring objects for work.
HOWEVER, due to the freedom and creation of technologies like replicators, ideals like Upper, Lower, and Middle economical classes have been abolished and lead way to the common person.
- Gold Pressed Latinum
So, this has lead me to believe that Latinum is non-replicatable. Meaning there is matter in the Star Trek Universe that cannot be created by replicators and still creates a problem of limited resources among things.
As far as what Latinum is worth, in Deep Space Nine that show 4 forms of Latinum. Slips, Streips, Bars, and Bricks. Slips being the smallest and Bricks being the largest. So. With Latinum being non-replicatable, this means that Latinum must also adhere to the rules of “gold standard”.
For those who do not know what the “Gold Standard” is, there was a time where money (like the American Dollar) was backed by Gold or the worth of gold. This meant one thing, we could not print more money then there was gold in America and that each representation of dollar was backed by an amount of gold.
This is obvious with GPL, as within each gold casing of GPL is an amount of Latinum inside. So, Latinum is treaded with as much care in the interstellar economy as much as a dollar does under a gold standard.
(How much is Latinum worth in value?)
As portrayed again in Deep Space Nine, any mention of Latinum in any form is very expensive.
During an episode:
There was mention of a heist where an amount (1000 Bricks) of Latinum was stolen. This was passively mentioned as an enormous amount and comparable to a trust left to a prince later in the show.
(Warning Spoliers)
Spoiler: Show
- While this may of later turned out to be a lie later, the individual as we know, has been an example of someone who knows his economics and believed this, causing me to believe that this has to be true in some form.
- Thoughts on Replicators.
Sometimes Replicators have been proven to not be able to create certain items like Induction Coils, or plating or hulls. To me, this might mean that it not only does it require a certain program or pattern for a replicator to make something, but that there are degrees of resolution, like a replicators ability to align molecules and particles to make the desired object in its entirety.
Going off this thought, that might also explain why people can be found complaining about the taste of some food from replicators. Meaning bigger, stronger, (and in some cases ‘expensive’) replicators may be able to produce better tasting food or more complex foods rather then just aligning proteins, meaning being able to handle multitude of flavors among the different and varied foods in the Star Trek Universe.
-- If you think I missed anything or have thoughts, please post comments below! --
(And Yes. I know there are gonna be a bunch of typos in this.)