Star Trek Essays
By Paul S. Cargile

Introduction
United Federation of Planets
Money

First off I'd like to make a few items clear, and that would be on the terms: canon, semi-canon, and non-canon. Understand that these are my definitions, and they may vary from person to person. Bear with me. Canon will be understood to mean any information of a clear and concise nature taken from visual media (television and motion picture) from dialogue, audio, and visual effects. Semi-canon will be understood to mean, any information speculated or conjectural inferred from visual media from dialogue, audio, and visual effects, and published media (books and magazines authorized by Paramount Pictures, especially those written by employees of Paramount Pictures who have a direct impact of Star Trek), any information acknowledged by the Star Trek staff and employees, and any information from authorized electronic media (websites and news groups). Non-canon is to be understood as all other sources of information from fan fiction, authorized or not, that includes "The Animated Series", novels and manuals.

Introduction:
"Star Trek" is riddled with inconsistencies. This is because Gene Roddenberry did no real planning for the Universe he created. "Star Trek" wasn't supposed to balloon into the alternate reality that it is. It was meant to be a vehicle for telling stories that explored not just space and the stars, but the human element. It wasn't known that Star Trek was going to become the most popular science fiction of the century. Three seasons and it was assumed it would fade into television history. In such, there was no command structure organized. There was no set speed on what warp one was. There was no mention of how dilithium crystals provided power to propel the starships. All of these things were merely meant to be background. These things were developed slowly and backward by the script writers. And now, with the original series, three spin-offs and several movies, the Star Trek Universe is a complete mess.

United Federation of Planets:
Taken from a broad perspective, one would assume that humans were the first local intelligence to create warp drive, discovering other civilizations, and sometime afterwards asking everyone to join into a United Nations of space. However, we now know that the Vulcans had warp drive, before the humans, and it seems that the Vulcan attitude about interference helped establish the Prime Directive. But where was the United Nations of space then? To me it sounds silly to assume that Earth was the first species that said, "Hey, let's get together and trade," and formed the United Federation of Planets. We don't know how many warp cultures were around in 2063 up to 2161, and it's also silly to assume that the original members all acquired warp drive in that hundred year span. From what we do know warp cultures stick together and share information, resources and commodities. Pre-warp cultures are isolated, developing at their own rate, then are welcomed to the Warp Club. Earth had to have gone through this as well. I think its akin to a situation where a new Industrial Age culture creates the United Nations in an Information Age world. Why wouldn't all those high tech smart nations do that already? But that didn't happen in reality. And I think the concept of unity for the benefit of all is not such an alien idea that Vulcans, or even Andorians, or the others never thought about banding together. In my view the United Federation of Planets should have existed prior to Earth's warp technology, and the seat of administration should be on another planet. This would make far more sense, since a warp culture discovered the human accomplishment of warp.

Money:
Madness. There are so many conflicting exchanges of dialogue to say who is most correct. But can a Space Empire survive without money? Yes. They can survive and flourish without physical money, but the concept of money has to exist. What is the state of Federation money in the 24th century? Electronic currency.
To better understand money we must look back in out own history and when money was first invented and why. Before money economy relied on the trade and barter system. No one had a job. Living was your job. A person had to build their own home, their own furniture, make their own pots, make their clothing, and grow their own food. If someone was better at making shoes than you were, you had to trade something to get those good shoes you wanted. The shoemaker might take three geese and a calf, and possibly dicker the "price" down to maybe one goose and a calf. But I'm sure the shoemaker wants the calf. Why? To make more shoes in the future.
Now perhaps someone else wants some shoes but the shoemaker doesn't need a calf or geese, but could use a new table. This new person agrees to make a table in exchange for shoes. But does a table equal in value one goose and a calf? Some may say yes, other will argue no. The point is there is no set value for goods and services rendered and its all up to the parties trading. No doubt this started wars about "overpricing."
The invention of money, or using spiral coils, and later coins, of precious metals, and jewels changed all this. Gold and silver could be weighed, and its weight set its value. So now shoes could cost one pound of gold, and one pound of gold might also get you one each goose. Gold, or rather money established value for goods and services. Money organized trading, and allowed for specialization in the crafts. The shoemaker can now exert all his talent to shoemaking and not worry about building a shoddy table for himself . Now he can buy a table from someone specializing in table making. And what happens when people start to specialize in their trade?
They get real good at it. It generates innovation, new techniques of doing things, and spawns advances in technology. Had money never been invented I would not be using this computer to lay down my opinions. I'd probably be telling you about it as we hoed our fields.
The next step in money is no doubt an electronic version. I believe the Federation uses e-money. It has to. Lets look at what we have seen from the episodes and movies:

In "Encounter at Farpoint", Dr. Crusher is seen shopping for garments. She finds ones and instructs the clerk to bill it to her account on the Enterprise. Starfleet personnel seldom need money because the ships are designed to accommodate everything via replicators. However, there is nothing like owning the genuine article. And on planets that have such articles available, they aren't going to give anything away for free, nor accept a trade if there is no established value set, hence the account on the Enterprise.
We have heard Picard tell Lilly that Federation citizens don't strive for wealth and the cost of the Enterprise was based on economics she wouldn't understand. Its common for people to impress upon the whole their own ideas. I believe Picard was saying the he doesn't strive for wealth. I find it hard to imagine there is no human or other alien that does not strive for wealth. Someone out there is greedy and tries to accumulate all the wealth possible. People have been the same for thousands of years. Take away the settings and people from the 1490s are no different from the people of the 1990s, and the people of the 2470s aren't going to be much better. There is going to be evolution of civilization, but that can't get rid of all the greedy people out there. I don't think a First Contact will make us better people.
What is the cost of the Sovereign class these days? Given e-money and diverse economics across the Federation, I think explaining the cost of the ship would entail far to many details that perhaps Picard himself doesn't fully understand it. He couldn't tell Lilly that it cost 47 million credits, because it doesn't just cost that. Its a complicated web of e-money, latnium (which some planets probably use with the introduction of Fereginar economics into the structure), trade contracts, imbursements for man-hours, and God knows what else. It was far easier to brush her off than go into details. Would you want to explain the concept of "buying" to a people that never invisioned the concept, or would you rather say, "We don't trade." That's what Picard went through. Good thing she didn't ask about the insurance on the Enterprise. Picard would have died from an aneurism.
Captain Sisko and his son Jake have stressed that the Federation doesn't use money. They are on a space station that accommodates them so they don't need money. When dealing with aliens one often takes the role of representative for the whole of humanity, Starfleet and the Federation. It is more common to say "The Federation" doesn't do this or believes this, than to say "I" don't. Yes Nog isn't stupid and knows about the Federation, and he and Jake have been friends for some time, but I think its a human character flaw that makes us believe that aliens will never understand humans. There remains a subtle discrimination against aliens and people with lesser knowledge, that it allows persons to substitute their own ideals for the ideals of the whole Federation, and to explain a complicated process such as the economy of the Federation with a little white lie.
For instance if I went to Japan and was offered squid and kelp, I'd be inclined to say that "Americans don't eat that." I'd mean that I don't eat it and have never seen anyone else eat squid and kelp, but do I really know that no one in America eats it? Of course not. I'm telling a falsehood.
Money, or rather its decendant has to exist in the Star Trek universe despite the ultimate utopia idea indicating otherwise. Reverting back to a trade system is a step back, not progress forward. I won't venture to say that money in whatever form is backed by gold or latnium, but the concept of money and the use of that concept must exist for the Federation to remain a viable power. No money expresses a commune and communes revert back to a trade system and the system of specialization disentergrates to one based on jack-of-all-trades. This means the halting of technical advancement. Cultures eventually dissovle to become isolated tribes.
And that is not the current state of the Federation.