Yes the same blog that brought you 6 Lessons Star Wars Can Teach You About Money is back again with money lessons taught by Star Trek.  As a warning, if you aren’t familiar with the Star Trek franchise you may not be able to follow every detail of the post.  This is written by a fan for the fans.

Let me tell you, Star Trek was much harder than Star Wars.  Why?  Because in the Star Trek universe, money doesn’t really exist!  So how then can I teach lessons about money by drawing on plot lines that don’t use money?  Watch and learn my friends.

Universal Healthcare May Not Be A Good Idea
Beverly Crusher, Bones McCoy, the “Doctor”, Julian Bashir, and others have made their mark in Star Trek as being the primary doctors at their respective postings.  In the Federation you don’t have to pay for medical care.  You just show up and get worked on.  I guess in this utopia getting paid is not the primary goal of medicine.  However it would also appear that these doctors would rather be doing other things than practicing medicine.  Dr. McCoy is just as often hanging out on the bridge as he is in sick-bay.  He also accompanied Spock and Kirk on many missions, most of which did not necessitate a medical degree.  The other doctors were no better, Crusher was much more concerned with the right camera angle for her new nose, Voyager’s “Doctor” practiced opera instead of medicine, and Dr. Bashir always managed to get himself into trouble.  Naturally in the shows whenever a new disease struck the crews the doctor could just “synthesize” a cure, but it just doesn’t work like that.  I want my doctors in their offices, practicing medicine.  They shouldn’t have the kind of time to sit on the bridge and crack jokes with the captain.  If that means we must motivate them with profits, then so be it.

One Man’s Trash Is Another Man’s Treasure
Scottie, chief engineer of the original series’s Enterprise was very proud of his ship.  In one of the most famous episodes, “The Trouble With Tribbles” Scottie defends the honor of his ship.  The Klingons, a warrior race, say the Enterprise “should be hauled away as garbage” in a correction from the original insult that it should be hauling garbage.  Though it may have been an insult it was no less true for the Klingons.  They have no interest in science or diplomacy, two priorities of the Federation.  Their ships are meant for fighting.  To a Klingon, the Enterprise is just garbage because it isn’t meant for fighting.  When it comes to your stuff, something you may see as garbage might have value to someone else.  My last car was a great example.  It’s trade in value was $300, with a private sale value of about $900.  However when it broke down shortly before selling it, my tow truck driver offered $1,000.  Why?  Because the parts are worth more than the car.  Sadly I didn’t take him up on it because I didn’t have my new car yet.

The Quest For Fuel Will Always Be A Struggle 
Drill baby drill!  Oil is the fuel of our society.  In the future, star ships run on dilithium crystals.  Like oil, it’s an energy source that must be dug up from under the ground.  In the future entire planets are devoted to getting this stuff out of the ground to fuel the fleets of ships exploring the galaxy.  Sometimes, the plot lines require the characters to find fuel sources, and it’s not always easy.  If you ask me those damned crystals are pretty unreliable.  The quest for fuel is a problem we can all relate to, which is why it makes for good plot points.  It does remind us that energy is finite, and no matter what we do, even with renewable resources, we will always fight over energy.  This usually means big bucks and political turmoil.  The future is the past is the present is the future.

Science May Be Holding Back For Profit
Star Trek Voyager was an interesting series.  One of my favorite episodes is when te crew finds themselves in the late 1990s as opposed to their normal 24th century reality.  Henry Starling is the episode’s antagonist.  He found a crashed ship from the 29th century in the 1960s and has since built a technology industry around it.  Starling is like Bill Gates.  To make his billions, Starling just takes a small bit of technology from the ship and releases it to the people.  Normal business cycles give a technology product a few years of existence before it’s obsolete.  Imagine if as soon as a product is released that same company immediately develops a better product.  Instead of releasing it as well, the company will let the business cycle on the current product expire before releasing the next one.  Imagine if Apple already has a phone with a fold out screen 4 times the size of the iPhone but takes up no less space.  What is their incentive to release it now?  They already dominate the market, and are making tons of profits.  Might as well let the iPhone run it’s course.  Starling, with the help of Star Trek, was the first to ever give me this conspiracy.

Precious Metals Always Carry A Value
The Star Trek universe features a race of troll-like creatures called the Ferengi.  The Ferengi are only concerned with one thing: profit.  They do business, often times illegal business, in attempts to acquire their favorite currency, latinum.  Latinum is a fictional metal that is liquid at normal temperatures, like mercury.  It is very rare and highly valued.  For ease of transportation, the latinum is encased in gold, making it “Gold Pressed Latinum”.  Despite advances in society the Ferengi prove that capitalism can get you into space!

A Unified Economy Doesn’t Need Money 
This is a generic statement because it all depends on what you think a unified economy is.  An economy is unified when everyone is working together towards a common goal.  When this occurs everything inside this little economy is unified and no money is needed.  Go to a pot-luck supper, everyone contributes their own time and energy towards the common goal of feeding the masses.  Look at your family, everyone has chores that are expected of them to keep the house in order, (most times) money doesn’t change hands.  In Star Trek, there is no money.  Everyone in the Federation is working towards a common goal, bettering the human race.  It’s true this is a utopia, but it’s possible to imagine because we see it on small scales every day.  Yes you need money to buy food to prepare, and need money to buy a vacuum cleaner, but these are externalities of the isolated economy.  Any instance where you can unify an economy allows you to exist, if temporarily, in a world where money doesn’t matter.

Bonus Lesson:
Star Trek was the first mainstream storyline that ever attempted to imagine a universe better than our own.  Star Trek was the first show to have an African-American as a main character, they pointed out technology eliminated poverty and hunger, and envisioned a future where the economics of today are merely a history lesson.  To some people Star Trek is merely a show, or collection of shows and movies.  To others, Star Trek represents what the future actually could hold for us.  Whether we get there or not doesn’t matter, but to not at least pursue it would be, illogical.

Special thanks to Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki, for the pictures and research.

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  By 		The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. Also keep in mind that nothing I say can be construed as financial advice.

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