Tera federation supply travel journal free#

But the existence of matter replicators renders this irrelevant. The great weakness of the command economy has always been the inability of bureaucrats to properly anticipate consumer or industrial demands, leading to perennial shortages or gluts of goods. When resources are needed for a starship or a energy grid or a starbase or any other government project, they are directly supplied from existing stockpiles. Essentially all heavy industry, mineral extraction and refining facilities, energy production, trade ships, and infrastructure is directly owned and operated by the central government. I propose that the United Federation of Planets has a post-scarcity socialist command economy. Whether or not it has a “budget” as we would understand it, it certainly must have some system for acquiring resources. How do they pay? With Federation Credits? How do they get or earn these? Perhaps most importantly, how does the Federation Council raise revenue? Obviously it doesn’t collect taxes, money no longer existing, but it must procure raw materials somehow! The central government of the United Federation of Planets builds and operates starships, industrial replicators, mass transit systems, space stations, and dozens of other forms of infrastructure. Federation citizens are seen patronizing foreign-owned businesses on Deep Space 9. But if he doesn’t charge his customers, where and how does he procure his fresh ingredients? That’s another commodity that will always be “scarce”.

In Deep Space Nine, Joseph Sisko is shown running a restaurant in New Orleans, which shows that some form of private business still exists. Characters own clothing, knickknacks, various forms of personal entertainment. Private property as a concept still clearly exists, at least for personal items. There’s a reference at one point to “transporter credits”, implying a rationing system for energy-intensive goods. But what about more cost-intensive goods, such as housing? Given Star Trek levels of technology, it would trivially easy to construct the buildings themselves, but how is it determined who gets what land? Land is always going to be a limited resource. The existence of matter replicators make this a negligibl e cost.

Tera federation supply travel journal free#

We can assume that some basic goods, such as food, are simply provided free of cost by the government to all citizens. To understand, we have to engage in a great deal of speculation. But while the various Star Trek shows are very good at showing what the Federation’s economy is not, they are much more vague about explaining what it is. In another episode of The Next Generation, Captain Picard meets a human businessmen from the 21st Century who’s been cryo-frozen until now, and responds to his demands to access his bank accounts and stocks by contemptuously explaining that none of these exist anymore, and that humanity no longer considers his values to be important. In The Next Generation episode where they are introduced, characters explicitly comment on how the Ferengi have yet to evolve their civilization to a more enlightened level. This is very apparent whenever the show deals with the Ferengi, a species who’s entire society and government is built around hyper-capitalist competition. In general, the economics of Star Trek can be described as “socialistic”, in that the Federation clearly has moved past any form of capitalism. All well and good! But how does that work in practice? Philosophically, people are now said to focus on personal self-improvement, rather than the accumulation of material possessions. Something called a “Federation Credit” exists, but it’s only used for foreign exchange. Specifically: I have a lot of questions about the economy of the Federation. But, I have finally embraced it, and because I’m me, I have now begun to overthink virtually every aspect of it.

Honestly, considering what a big fan of science fiction I am, I don’t really know how I avoided Star Trek as long as I did. They’re wonderful shows, great science fiction that also not-so-subtly pushes liberal propaganda. In the last few years, I’ve become a big fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.