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I'm still unclear how Federation 'credits' work and who decides or assigns who gets how much. Does everyone get the same number of credits assigned to them or are credits assigned based upon position held or duties performed? Can someone increase their credit allotment by doing something different, special or extraordinary? Can everyone buy a spaceship, a yacht or a vineyard?

Note: Since there may be no answer to this in the episodes and movies, answers can include info from tie-in novels, etc.

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    Also related, but less so: scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/23580/…, scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/6923/…
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Commented Mar 21, 2013 at 22:32
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    Interesting how this is going... I see no answer to the question in those threads. There's the standard talk of, "Humans have moved beyond the need to acquire goods and seek to better themselves", and vague references to 'credits' and "Put it on my account". There's also references to barter type exchanges. But no answer to how these Federation'credits' are identified, valued or assigned... Payback?
    – Morgan
    Commented Mar 21, 2013 at 23:50
  • The linked threads are relevant to this, but I agree with @Morgan - this question still has no answer and it's not a duplicate.
    – Goodbye Stack Exchange
    Commented Mar 22, 2013 at 2:58
  • @neilfein Not even the explicit My question is, how do humans get "money" (credits, latinum, etc)? in the third link DVK posted?
    – Izkata
    Commented Mar 22, 2013 at 3:26
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    @neilfein - fair enough. Not a dupe after the edit. VTRO
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 2:07

1 Answer 1

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It has never, ever, ever been addressed in the 79 episodes of The Original Series, the 176 episodes of the Next Generation, the 173 episodes of Deep Space Nine, the 168 episodes of Voyager, or the 97 episodes of Enterprise.

The only time we see any economy in action is in Deep Space 9, and it was all commerce with outsiders. Federation citizen obviously get paid something, because we see them use that money to buy things at various points of the series. Bartering is still around because we see it used in both Voyager and Deep Space 9. Beyond that, nobody knows. There aren't even enough data points to come up with a guess. I mean, you obviously can't just walk up and buy a Galaxy-class starship, but nobody blinks twice when they hand Scotty a shuttlecraft.

So... yeah. No data. No explanation.

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  • I blinked twice. But only because I had something in my eye.
    – Xantec
    Commented Mar 22, 2013 at 2:56
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    Look at Scotty's honest sad eyes. Wouldn't YOU hand him a shuttlecraft?
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Commented Mar 22, 2013 at 3:46
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    @Xantec - Don't blink. Just... don't.
    – Goodbye Stack Exchange
    Commented Mar 22, 2013 at 4:19
  • @neilfein I don't recall seeing any Angels on the Enterprise.
    – Xantec
    Commented Mar 22, 2013 at 11:43

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