You can certainly make big deals on that basis, but not small ones

But they evidently have it

Trade in precious metals isnt the same thing as a currency though, since any currency is usually backed by a precious metal which does not depreceate in value

Money is probably for trading with other races tbh edit: Other organizations

So things have monetary value but nobody really cares about that anymore.

The Ferengi trade mostly in Latinum and Gold, and being the space equivelant of a free market I would suggest that they set that standard

I'm by no means a Star Trek guy though so I am just making a guess.

"Any currency is usually backed by a precious metal"
This hasn't been the case for decades

If I remember correctly the Euro is gold standard still.

If you invest in precious metals when your currency is weak, you sell it for much more when your currency is strong

That's not the same thing as having money *backed* by precious metals

The value of say, USD and the value of gold are not correlated

Sorry, I said the wrong thing to what I meant then

I meant the value of gold is an abstract somewhat fixed thing, whereas currencies are fluid and subject to change

Oh I guess you're right, there aren't any.

gold is not a fixed thing

especially when buying shares of precious metals and not acquiring the metals physically

Well, arguably the worth of gold is only equivelant to that of whatever currency you are using to purchase it

The value of gold changes depending on demand for gold, which is not fixed

Demand relative to supply, of cojrse

I dont know whether to carry on talking from the Star Trek perspective or not, I think the SciFi applications and real life are completely different of course

You guys are forgetting the role of the IMF's special drawing rights in the post-breton woods world.

SDR is backed by a suite of hard assets.

and in the event of critical monetary failure the IMF is poised to bail out any number of financial institutions.

So yeah, since the 'Nixon Shock' the connection between the USD and gold has been severed.

But it isn't as if the international financial community doesn't use gold as a hedge in the event of global economic instability.

It's a bit messed up.

One could actually argue that it isn't the USD that serves as the 'global reserve currency' any longer, but instead the SDR.

The dollar just happens to be the largest reserve percentage in the basket holding that composes the SDR.

Sci Fi isn't meant to be totally divorced from reality. Star Trek is basically "I think if it worked like this, these things would happen"

And then you get goofy shit along the way for fun

I thought we were talking monetary policy.

We were talking about money in star trek. It got a little more detailed

*I am dissapoint*.

I was challenging the notion that ST is socialist, since private property, personal possessions, wages etc exist even despite society being "post scarcity"

I was talking about Ferengi

GPL

best mcguffin

@MachoHamRandySandwich Sorry, but what you said was interesting

The difference is that with production costs basically hitting rock bottom people aren't worried about subsisting or accumulating material goods, except where scarcity is still present (excepting the Ferengi)

Picard explains it in the episode where they find the capsule with the 22nd Century frozen people as: