Ted Cruz tries to claim Captain Kirk for GOP; Shatner not having it

[Gulo Blue]

from Star Trek IV:

Dr. Gillian Taylor: Don't tell me you don't use money in the 23rd Century.
Kirk: Well, we don't.
​

He must have meant physical currency.

• James T. Kirk stated that the Federation Starfleet had a lot invested in both him and Commander Spock. In fact, Starfleet had 122,200 plus credits invested in Spock by the end of 2267. (TOS: "Errand of Mercy", "The Apple")
  
• In 2267, Uhura offered to purchase a tribble from Cyrano Jones for ten credits. (TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles")
  
• In 2267, the mirror universe Kirk attempted to bribe prime universe Spock with "credits" ? indicating that the Terran Empire currency was also referred to as the "credit" ? promising that Spock would become a rich man and would have a command of his own, in an attempt to gain release from the brig. (TOS: "Mirror, Mirror")
  
• In 2269, Harry Mudd was selling love potion crystals for three hundred credits apiece before he had realized they actually worked. (TAS: "Mudd's Passion")
  
• Shortly before his retirement in the 2290s, Montgomery Scott bought a boat. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
  
• In 2364, Beverly Crusher bought a roll of cloth and had her account on the USS Enterprise-D billed. (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint")
  
• The Federation would have paid 1.5 million Federation credits as a lump sum and then 100,000 credits every Barzanian year for the rights to the Barzan wormhole. (TNG: "The Price")
  
• Quark accepted credits in his bar when doing business with Federation citizens. (DS9: "Body Parts", "Take Me Out to the Holosuite"; VOY: "Caretaker")

 

[Gulo Blue]

How the Star Trek economy works is a good topic to consider. I feel like we have some limited elements of post scarcity society right now. It will become increasingly important to adapt our economy. But capitalism has to be modified, not done away with. We're already seeing people return to inefficient ways of producing things and others paying high prices for things produced in less efficient ways at farmers markets and craft markets. People want to work and make things and feel useful. We're like the t-rex in Jurassic Park. We don't want to be fed, we want to hunt. That's why I think the economy will split. There will be a subsistence tier for the mass produced stuff that's so plentiful, it's not worth tracking, like public water fountains, and a second economy for limited luxury items.

 

[tinselwolverine]

Is Beverly Crusher related to Wesley Crusher?

 

[Michchamp]

Is Beverly Crusher related to Wesley Crusher?

yep. she's his mom.

 

[Michchamp]

How the Star Trek economy works is a good topic to consider. I feel like we have some limited elements of post scarcity society right now. It will become increasingly important to adapt our economy. But capitalism has to be modified, not done away with. We're already seeing people return to inefficient ways of producing things and others paying high prices for things produced in less efficient ways at farmers markets and craft markets. People want to work and make things and feel useful. We're like the t-rex in Jurassic Park. We don't want to be fed, we want to hunt. That's why I think the economy will split. There will be a subsistence tier for the mass produced stuff that's so plentiful, it's not worth tracking, like public water fountains, and a second economy for limited luxury items.

there's also always a human need to distinguish oneself, and some innate competitiveness there that should best be channeled into productivity. to address it though, you don't need rock bottom tax rates that allow certain endeavors to go under-taxed and absurdly rewarded (e.g. "hedge fund manager") or wealth to be passed from generation to generation, allowing leisure classes to develop and perpetuate themselves.

I like my idea of a near-100% tax on estates, with exceptions for some protected investments like education funds for descendants, and family-held businesses... paying for free education and healthcare for everyone up to age 18, guaranteed pensions for everyone over 65, disability pensions for anyone medically unable to work. And also intelligent enough voters that they won't be swayed by bullshit appeals to relatively rare program fraud, welfare fraud, racism, etc. and understand how this is all supposed to work, so that some Reagan-esque hacks from the future can't come along and undo it all.

I really don't see how anyone who claims to be in favor of the free market and competition can object to that, or conversely, how they can defend cutting trust and estate taxes to near-enough 0%.

 

[tinselwolverine]

there's also always a human need to distinguish oneself, and some innate competitiveness there that should best be channeled into productivity. to address it though, you don't need rock bottom tax rates that allow certain endeavors to go under-taxed and absurdly rewarded (e.g. "hedge fund manager") or wealth to be passed from generation to generation, allowing leisure classes to develop and perpetuate themselves.

I like my idea of a near-100% tax on estates, with exceptions for some protected investments like education funds for descendants, and family-held businesses...

$100,000 isn't a whole lot of money...yet it constitutes an "estate."

I'm not saying I'm in complete disagreement with you-but there would have to be certain parameters.

I don't think we want to start imposing a death tax on relatively not wealthy people.

 

[Michchamp]

$100,000 isn't a whole lot of money...yet it constitutes an "estate."

I'm not saying I'm in complete disagreement with you-but there would have to be certain parameters.

I don't think we want to start imposing a death tax on relatively not wealthy people.

I think there's already a floor on the estate tax; it doesn't kick in until $500K or a $1MM. I suppose compared to some plutocrats' estates, $1MM is not a lot of money, but still, I'd cap the amount each descendant could receive so even if the estate's value was below the floor, if there was only one heir, a whole $1MM couldn't pass to them.