I was inspired to research this subject by considering the question of the Star Trek universe and money. For the United Federation of Planets, references to money are contradictory and confusing, and the most that one can reasonably conclude is that it plays a minor role in that society. However, we see replicator rations used as money in ST:VOY, and lots of references to money in non-Federation societies, especially the Ferengi.
Star Trek A Look at Money in Star Trek - Italian Style
Money - Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki
Star Trek: Gene Rodenberry’s Dream for an Interstellar Utopia | The Utopianist
Gene Roddenberry had claimed that the UFP does not have money, but I find it very implausible that a large-scale, high-tech society does not do so.
Let's consider the possibilities.
Our premise: A has X and wants Y, and B has Y and wants X. How does A get Y and B get X by something that they can agree on?
Barter: A gives X to B and B gives Y to X. That requires a "coincidence of wants", as some economists call it, and it can be very awkward. No human society seems to use only barter.
Gift economy: A has X but B does not have Y at the moment. So A gives X to B and when B gets Y, B remembers A's favor and gives Y to A. This is common among small-scale, low-tech societies, and many of us likely do this with our friends.
There are limits to this sort of accounting, and many societies have invented mediums of exchange -- money.
Money: A sells X for M and buys Y for M. B sells Y for M and buys X for M. M is usually something much more portable than X or Y. Various types of money:
Commodity money: exchange items traded at their non-monetary value. People have used a variety of these, like cows, grain, seashells, beads, fancy belts, precious metals, and cigarettes.
Though commodity money is often much more portable than most other items, it can get awkward to carry around, so we get to the next step.
Representative money: exchange items traded at more than the non-monetary value, sometimes much more. Paper money, for instance. Present-day coins also often qualify, and much such money nowadays is even more abstract: numerical values in banks' computer databases.
Paper money likely originated as IOU notes for commodity money, and gold-standard enthusiasts want to return to that state, with the commodity being gold. This brings us to our next sort of representative money.
Fiat money: (Latin "let (it) be made", not the Italian car) money decreed into existence. Central banks often do this, and such monetary fraud as coinage debasing and counterfeiting is essentially fiat money. In fact, some people consider central-bank fiat money to also be monetary fraud. Even if one doesn't, one may still recognize that a central bank can print money recklessly, leading to high inflation.
Various kinds of money
Star Trek A Look at Money in Star Trek - Italian Style
Money - Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki
Star Trek: Gene Rodenberry’s Dream for an Interstellar Utopia | The Utopianist
Gene Roddenberry had claimed that the UFP does not have money, but I find it very implausible that a large-scale, high-tech society does not do so.
Let's consider the possibilities.
Our premise: A has X and wants Y, and B has Y and wants X. How does A get Y and B get X by something that they can agree on?
Barter: A gives X to B and B gives Y to X. That requires a "coincidence of wants", as some economists call it, and it can be very awkward. No human society seems to use only barter.
Gift economy: A has X but B does not have Y at the moment. So A gives X to B and when B gets Y, B remembers A's favor and gives Y to A. This is common among small-scale, low-tech societies, and many of us likely do this with our friends.
There are limits to this sort of accounting, and many societies have invented mediums of exchange -- money.
Money: A sells X for M and buys Y for M. B sells Y for M and buys X for M. M is usually something much more portable than X or Y. Various types of money:
Commodity money: exchange items traded at their non-monetary value. People have used a variety of these, like cows, grain, seashells, beads, fancy belts, precious metals, and cigarettes.
Though commodity money is often much more portable than most other items, it can get awkward to carry around, so we get to the next step.
Representative money: exchange items traded at more than the non-monetary value, sometimes much more. Paper money, for instance. Present-day coins also often qualify, and much such money nowadays is even more abstract: numerical values in banks' computer databases.
Paper money likely originated as IOU notes for commodity money, and gold-standard enthusiasts want to return to that state, with the commodity being gold. This brings us to our next sort of representative money.
Fiat money: (Latin "let (it) be made", not the Italian car) money decreed into existence. Central banks often do this, and such monetary fraud as coinage debasing and counterfeiting is essentially fiat money. In fact, some people consider central-bank fiat money to also be monetary fraud. Even if one doesn't, one may still recognize that a central bank can print money recklessly, leading to high inflation.
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