picture from theonion.com

“Though raising interest rates is unlikely at the moment, the Fed will of course act appropriately if we…if we…” said Bernanke, who then paused for a moment, looked down at his prepared statement, and shook his head in utter disbelief. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. None of this—this so-called ‘money’—really matters at all.”

“It’s just an illusion,” a wide-eyed Bernanke added as he removed bills from his wallet and slowly spread them out before him. “Just look at it: Meaningless pieces of paper with numbers printed on them. Worthless.”

from theonion.com

You know, as funny as this Onion article might be, something like this could actually happen some day. I’ve often thought to myself what a society without money would be like. It wouldn’t have to be return to a barter system or the stone age, but the issue of how to get people to do complex and/or dangerous acts that need to be done (like surgery or digging sewer tunnels) without a monetary system or a some form of forced labor.

In the Star Trek universe there is no money (at least not on Earth and the main Federation planets) and it is said that everyone just does what they want to do. That makes some sense. I mean, someone might without a doubt want to be a surgeon and work hard to become such because they want to save lives, but what if not enough people want to do that? Also, who wants to be a garbage man or someone who handles toxic waste? There are many jobs no one would really want to do, unless everyone is ordered to do so under some sort of penalty.

I found this article online about economics in the Star Trek universe: Unofficial Economics of Star Trek

There they mention the concept of Participatory Economics, which is what the author believes the Star Trek economy is based upon.  If you read the wikipedia article on Participatory Economics you find an interesting description of what it is plus of some of the viewed pros and cons of such a system.

WASHINGTON—After nearly four months of frank, honest, and open dialogue about the failing economy, a weary U.S. populace announced this week that it is once again ready to be lied to about the current state of the financial system.

 

Tired of hearing the grim truth about their economic future, Americans demanded that the bald-faced lies resume immediately, particularly whenever politicians feel the need to divulge another terrifying problem with Wall Street, the housing market, or any one of a hundred other ticking time bombs everyone was better off not knowing about.

 

In addition, citizens are requesting that the phrase, “It will only get worse before it gets better,” be permanently replaced with, “Things are going great. Enjoy yourselves.”

 

the onion