OK, fair enough.
But HOW does he pay for it when the UFP doesn't use money? (Unless the Bajorans do...in which case, will their money system be wiped out when they join the UFP?)
Also, do Estate Agents exist in the 24th Century? ("Hello, Mr. Sisko....yes, we have the keys for you. Carpets and curtains included....") :-)
Ch.
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*pretends that makes sense*
Besides, why would Sisko need to purchase land on Bajor anyway?
"Hi, I was wondering if I could build a house here. You might recognize me...Emmisary of the Prophets?"
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"The record of my unspeakable crimes, in previous lives, in previous times, indelibly stains the pages of history."
--
They Might Be Giants
Right. The Federation is one big benevolent Communist state. No-one uses or needs money, and resources are avaiable in plenty. But what happens when you need resources which are lacking in the area occupied by the UFP? Answer is simple, you buy them from elsewhere. . . result, interstellar trade.
There are a lot of things the UFP makes that others would want to buy, so you have some sort of rudimentary financial market - barter wouldn't really work. So, the Federation has money init's coffers, whichi it doesn't need except to buy things. And that still leaves a lot.
So what do they do? They create one big expense account that their citizens can draw on while abroad. This would feature especially for the Starfleet personnel. Of course, there would in reality be several accounts, but since DS9 is run by Starfleet it would have one, probably overseen by Sisko ultimately. That's why Jake couldn't get any money to buy his dad a baseball card - it wasn't a legitimate expense, and the Captain might have seen it come up on the statement! 8)
However, for a senior Starfleet officer to buy property on an important border planet where the inhabitants regard him as a prophet might be considered OK. . .
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"I am greater than the stars for I know that they are up there and they do not know that I am down here." - William Temple
Let's say a federation citizen wants to buy a house. They look in the electronic newpaper published by journalists that work basically for free and find a listing of available homes. They visit the homes, and find one they like. They meet, along with other potential "buyers," the current owner of the house. The owner talks with the "buyers," and decides who to "sell" the house to. Buyers iving the current owner things in trade for the house might seem like bribing. Thus, it would happen, but very rarely. The previous owner wouldn;t get any material compensation for giving up their previous home, but they would get the satisfaction of giving someone a place to live, and perhaps start a family in.
This might not happen everywhere. The federtion is a BIG place. There is room for thousands of completely differnt sociteties within the federation. Look atr the diversity of buying a home on Earth today. They migth be built, bought, or shared. Perhaps on Bolia a thousand bolians come together to build one dormitory for their entire community. Perhaps on Andora, young andorans go out into the wilderness to hunt and fend for themsevles and build their own shelter alone. Perhaps on Grazeron, their are no homes at all, and grazerites even today roam their world in herds.
I am possibly getting to the point here, by saying perhaps on Bajor, when someone wants a home, they buy land with money and buy materials and pay people to build a house. All of this buying is not done in trade or moral satisfaction, but with money. Plain old dough, molaa, green stuff. The point of all of this is that the federation is so big that money could be dead in one place and alive in another. After Bajor joins the federation they could still keep their system of money. Overtime, their money could just become useless as reasources became plantiful. Eventually, their money might just disappear. ("OK, that's 2 cents for the parcel of land and 3 cents to pay me to build it...ah, what the heck, i'll just do it for free.")
But this still doesn;t answer the question, "how did sisko buy his parcel of land without money?" Well, maybe someone was paying him. Perhaps starfleet, maybe the federation, possibly the Bajoran government.
I personally think that it was starfleet. They could have payed sisko in those elusive federation credits. Starfleetr perhaps pays all of its starfleet officers, perhaps all the same ammount, just so that they can get by when their in a part of the federation or at a place out of the federation where money is used. Where does starfleet get these credits? Perhaps from the federation government. Lt. Paris stated in "Dark Frontier" that money "went the way of the dinoisaur" in the 22nd century. That would have been near the founding of the federation. Thus, the federation could very well have had set up a money system at its creation. Every year, the federation makes so many credits to make up for the credits that have spilled out of the federation economy through contact with other civilizations. They might send some of these credits to starfleet, to pay the starfleet officers, so that they could get by on places where money was used.
Thus, Sisko was paybed by starflleet and saved up his money to buy a parcel of land on Bajor.
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"How many people does it
take before it becomes
wrong? 6,000? 60,000?
How many people does it
take admiral!?!" -Ambassador
Picard during his command
of the Enterprise-E in the
Ba'ku incident.
Sol has a good point with the Emissary thing, though. 
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Rodimus Prime: "Don't panic. Stay calm until we know what's going on. Then we'll panic."
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"I think therefore I'm DANGEROUS!" -MI
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Rodimus Prime: "Don't panic. Stay calm until we know what's going on. Then we'll panic."
Starfleet ppl don't use money cause the usually never need to(they are paid). They are always on a ship that only has ship provided services. They can replicate everything. Ppl on DS9 need latinam which they are paid to go to Quark's, Garak's, ect. These are services not provided by Starfleet.
Ppl outside Starfleet still use money, why would Papa Sisko have a restuarant and why did Picard's brother have the vineyard? Bc they need money to buy the few things they choose not to replicate. The Picard's did not even have a replicator. Ppl still like fresh food; that is why they go to Sisko's Restaurant.
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Wheeelersburg Correctional Facility
Inmate #05301999
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Rodimus Prime: "Don't panic. Stay calm until we know what's going on. Then we'll panic."
Anyway, starfleet officers must earn a salary of some sort...otherwise how do they afford their drinks @ Quarks? Hmm? *L*
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I drink therefore I am.
-Descartes
My other suggestion from a long-ago thread was that Federation citizens operate on a sort-of credit system - but that's credits for what they do, what contribution they make to society. Making wine, running a restaurant (or a cafe, like in that ep of Voyager where Harry finds himself on Earth) - all these count, as does scientific research. Being in Starfleet probably is judged the higfhest contributions of all, and is rewarded accordingly.
And then, when they need to buy stuff from others, they convert that 'society credit' into others' money. . . maybe.
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"I am greater than the stars for I know that they are up there and they do not know that I am down here." - William Temple
The "society credit" is rather silly. Contribution to society is its own reward.
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Rodimus Prime: "Don't panic. Stay calm until we know what's going on. Then we'll panic."
------------------
"How many people does it
take before it becomes
wrong? 6,000? 60,000?
How many people does it
take admiral!?!" -Ambassador
Picard during his command
of the Enterprise-E in the
Ba'ku incident.
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Parallax
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What bloke invented signatures?
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Rodimus Prime: "Don't panic. Stay calm until we know what's going on. Then we'll panic."
Money.
Madness. There are so many conflicting exchanges of dialogue to say who is most correct. But can a Space Empire survive without money? Yes. They can survive and flourish without physical money, but the concept of money has to exist. What is the state of Federation money in the 24th century? Electronic currency.
To better understand money we must look back in out own history and when money was first invented and why. Before money economy relied on the trade and barter system. No one had a job. Living was your job. A person had to build their own home, their own furniture, make their own pots, make their clothing, and grow their own food. If someone was better at making shoes than you were, you had to trade something to get those good shoes you wanted. The shoemaker might take three geese and a calf, and possibly dicker the "price" down to maybe one goose and a calf. But I'm sure the shoemaker wants the calf. Why? To make more shoes in the future.
Now perhaps someone else wants some shoes but the shoemaker doesn't need a calf or geese, but could use a new table. This new person agrees to make a table in exchange for shoes. But does a table equal in value one goose and a calf? Some may say yes, other will argue no. The point is there is no set value for goods and services rendered and its all up to the parties trading. No doubt this started wars about "overpricing."
The invention of money, or using spiral coils, and later coins, of precious metals, and jewels changed all this. Gold and silver could be weighed, and its weight set its value. So now shoes could cost one pound of gold, and one pound of gold might also get you one each goose. Gold, or rather money established value for goods and services. Money organized trading, and allowed for specialization in the crafts. The shoemaker can now exert all his talent to shoemaking and not worry about building a shoddy table for himself . Now he can buy a table from someone specializing in table making. And what happens when people start to specialize in their trade?
They get real good at it. It generates innovation, new techniques of doing things, and spawns advances in technology. Had money never been invented I would not be using this computer to lay down my opinions. I'd probably be telling you about it as we hoed our fields.
The next step in money is no doubt an electronic version. I believe the Federation uses e-money. It has to. Lets look at what we have seen from the episodes and movies:In "Encounter at Farpoint", Dr. Crusher is seen shopping for garments. She finds ones and instructs the clerk to bill it to her account on the Enterprise. Starfleet personnel seldom need money because the ships are designed to accommodate everything via replicators. However, there is nothing like owning the genuine article. And on planets that have such articles available, they aren't going to give anything away for free, nor accept a trade if there is no established value set, hence the account on the Enterprise.
We have heard Picard tell Lilly that Federation citizens don't strive for wealth and the cost of the Enterprise was based on economics she wouldn't understand. Its common for people to impress upon the whole their own ideas. I believe Picard was saying the he doesn't strive for wealth. I find it hard to imagine there is no human or other alien that does not strive for wealth. Someone out there is greedy and tries to accumulate all the wealth possible. People have been the same for thousands of years. Take away the settings and people from the 1490s are no different from the people of the 1990s, and the people of the 2470s aren't going to be much better. There is going to be evolution of civilization, but that can't get rid of all the greedy people out there. I don't think a First Contact will make us better people.
What is the cost of the Sovereign class these days? Given e-money and diverse economics across the Federation, I think explaining the cost of the ship would entail far to many details that perhaps Picard himself doesn't fully understand it. He couldn't tell Lilly that it cost 47 million credits, because it doesn't just cost that. Its a complicated web of e-money, latnium (which some planets probably use with the introduction of Fereginar economics into the structure), trade contracts, imbursements for man-hours, and God knows what else. It was far easier to brush her off than go into details. Would you want to explain the concept of "buying" to a people that never invisioned the concept, or would you rather say, "We don't trade." That's what Picard went through. Good thing she didn't ask about the insurance on the Enterprise. Picard would have died from an aneurism.
Captain Sisko and his son Jake have stressed that the Federation doesn't use money. They are on a space station that accommodates them so they don't need money. When dealing with aliens one often takes the role of representative for the whole of humanity, Starfleet and the Federation. It is more common to say "The Federation" doesn't do this or believes this, than to say "I" don't. Yes Nog isn't stupid and knows about the Federation, and he and Jake have been friends for some time, but I think its a human character flaw that makes us believe that aliens will never understand humans. There remains a subtle discrimination against aliens and people with lesser knowledge, that it allows persons to substitute their own ideals for the ideals of the whole Federation, and to explain a complicated process such as the economy of the Federation with a little white lie.
For instance if I went to Japan and was offered squid and kelp, I'd be inclined to say that "Americans don't eat that." I'd mean that I don't eat it and have never seen anyone else eat squid and kelp, but do I really know that no one in America eats it? Of course not. I'm telling a falsehood.Money, or rather its decendant has to exist in the Star Trek universe despite the ultimate utopia idea indicating otherwise. Reverting back to a trade system is a step back, not progress forward. I won't venture to say that money in whatever form is backed by gold or latnium, but the concept of money and the use of that concept must exist for the Federation to remain a viable power. No money expresses a commune and communes revert back to a trade system and the system of specialization disentergrates to one based on jack-of-all-trades. This means the halting of technical advancement. Cultures eventually dissovle to become isolated tribes.
And that is not the current state of the Federation.
Unless anyone can come up with a better economic plan, I'll hear it. But until then the Trek writers are oblivious to economic reason. It's extremely easy to say "We use no money", but the logic just isn't there.
[This message was edited by Cargile on April 04, 1999.]
The only time "money" would ever come into play would be trade with other governments.
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Destruction Drone: "Throw down your weapons and I will spare your miserable lives!"
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If Galileo had lied to save his life, would America, or the West, or Space have been discovered?
And if Columbus had never set sail, would the Earth still be flat?
IMO, the whole notion of the Federation having internal currency is the result of viewers being unable to think in a non-capitalistic manner. 
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http://frankg.dgne.com/
Destruction Drone: "Throw down your weapons and I will spare your miserable lives!"
Rollbar: "That's the best offer we've had all day..."
In star trek, with the invention of replicators and arguably before the invention of replicators, resources are so abundant that if money exsisted THEY WOULD COST NOTHING. If you wanted to buy clothes, u wouldn't pay lets say 20 credits because someone else would always be able to sell it to you for less becuase the clothes cost nothing to make.
But what about these miraculous replicators that amke everything free? Where did they come from? Look: today, there are LOTS of actors. So many actors, and so few acting jobs, that becoming an actor to make money is stupid. Ure chances of making lots of money as an actor are very low. Thus, only people who WANT to become actors become actors. In the federation, lots of people probabaly want to be scientists and engineers. Fortunately, in science, you can work alone without anyone else. But if you want to do something in practical science, such as BUILDING REPLICATORS, you have to want to do it and be really go at it, because so many people want to. You don't worry about material welth, which is already useless anyway, because you want to build replicators.
Now, in the few times we've seen money used, its only been with other civilizations besides the federation, where resources aren't as abundant and thus things cost money. So, federation citizens would only use money when dealing with outside civilizations. Where do they get this money from? I dought they get it from working. Once they get it, they have nothing to do with it unless they travel to a civilation that uses money. So where does the money come from? Maybe they replicate....I really don't know. But I dought the avergae federation citizen gets paid, because the avergae federation citizen does not spend alot of time in civilizations where money is used.
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"How many people does it
take before it becomes
wrong? 6,000? 60,000?
How many people does it
take admiral!?!" -Ambassador
Picard during his command
of the Enterprise-E in the
Ba'ku incident.
------------------
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I did'nt do it.
Been sharpening Occam's razor, haven't you?
--Baloo
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Lyta Vorlon: "Our great mistake. Our failing. And now your failing. The error is compounded."
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-- Kalesh Naranek, Last of the Vorlon
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*I only SEEM Normal*
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What do you mean I'm not kind. Just not you're kind.
--Dave Mustaine
"Peace Sells"
MEGADETH
[This message was edited by Cargile on April 08, 1999.]
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"And though I once prefered a human being's company, they pale before the monolith that towers over me."
--
They Might Be Giants
Plenty of energy might be produced by solar power plants. I would suggest shells in the Mercury orbit *trying to avoid the term "Dyson sphere"* collecting solar radiation rather than using matter/antimatter reaction (BTW: where does the antimatter come from?).
Still, some things and materials will be scarce. Collecting or striving for scarce goods seems to be buried in human nature and has to be distinguished from mere greed, and that's in essence what money would be used for. The question is if there will ever be a replication technique that is able to exactly reproduce any matter down to the quantum level, so it can't be distiguished from the original. In this case nobody and nothing would be unique anymore, and any kind money or latinum or currency equivalent would be really futile, provided there is energy and replicators everywhere.
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Early bird catches the gagh. (The Doctor to B'Elanna at 06:00, "Drone")
www.uni-siegen.de/~ihe/bs/startrek/
Of course, replicators might simply be atom-rearrangers anyway.
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Robot: "Hey, I'm stuck up here!"
Cyclonus: "Everybody's got to be somewhere."
Sisco owns and operates a resturant because there is a demand for it. People still like to eat real food. Plus real food is more economic energy wise. The energy used to cook a full spread dinner is way way less than that same meal replicated from stock bulk materials on board a starship. We humans endeavor to make our lives easier, safer, and more economic.
From the limited amount of earth homelife exposure on Trek, everyone is cooking and preparing their own meals. Sisco's resturant (Sisco's! Not The Peoples' Resturant No. 42, but Sisco's, implying ownership) Picard's family in France (though there was mention of replicators), and Picard's virtual Nexus wife. So if this is a microcosm of the whole world, then people still cook. And if they do, where are they getting the food? If they are not slaughtering their own cattle and growing their own vegetables, then how are they earning them? Gee, I suppose they are providing services and producing goods to meet the demands of society.
No, I don't think people are pulling out their wallets and paying with cash. But everyone is identified at birth and a profile is kept, so somehow, each person's net worth is calculated and recorded. (I'm not exactly fond of this idea as it violates the US Constitution reguarding privacy.) Maybe it works on credit and rations, or a chit system. Value has to be defined. I think in the Trek world, value is defined by information. The need to learn is far greater than the need to own, but people still own. Just like today, people still learn. People still study the sciences. So in the 24th century, if information is the Fort Knox, how is an economy built on it? What information is more important, and thus more valuable, than other information? We can only guess at what 24th century humans will deem more valuable.
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What do you mean I'm not kind. Just not you're kind.
--Dave Mustaine
"Peace Sells"
MEGADETH
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"And though I once prefered a human being's company, they pale before the monolith that towers over me."
--
They Might Be Giants
Er, wait, I'll start over.
I suspect the Federation supplies restaurants with real food. Run a restaurant, serve the food. It's a distribution system. Etc.
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Robot: "Hey, I'm stuck up here!"
Cyclonus: "Everybody's got to be somewhere."
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What bloke invented signatures?
And stop spreading germs...I already caught your cold...
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What bloke invented signatures?