Next Generation Episode 4 (Code of Honor) Economic Anaylsis

Episode 3 really didn't have anything but some jokes about Data being "fully functional". It's surprising the things you don't catch when you're a little kid. All these years, I thought Star Trek was a fairly innocent show! That is, with Kirk safely away, of course.

In any case! Episode 4, if you get past it's glaringly opaque attempt to portray a society that is primitive and ended up casting it with all Africans with African accents wearing definitively African styled clothing, has other interesting economic implications.

The reason the Enterprise has come into contact with this people is because they have a vaccine that the Federation does not have, nor is able to replicate (which seems a bit dubious to me in light of their technologies, but whatever).

Naturally, one would think in such a situation that a trade, one that was particularly advantageous to the Ligonians. This does not happen. The vaccine is given freely. As to why? The answer is not necessarily clear.

Indeed, when plans go awry, it is not a fault of trading, or economics (not with the Federation, in any case). Instead, it's cultural differences because supposedly performing a "counting coup" on the Federation is deemed heroic, an important aspect to their traditions and culture. The Ligonian leader kidnaps Lieutenant Yar but not as leverage as one would expect, but rather so that his wife would challenge her position and they would fight to the death. He is confident in Yar's abilities to kill her, and knows that once she does, all of his wife's lands will belong to him.

So what does this have to do with the Federation? They can't get the vaccine unless they allow Lieutenant Yar do this.

"How simple this would be without the Prime Directive" is the quote that most struck me. For those who don't know, the Prime Directive, the most important of all Federation ethics, is not to interfere with others culture.

So what happens? They play by the Ligonian culture's rules, which is against their ethics (fights to the death) in order to obtain something they desperately need.

Within the Federation Space, such economies are unneeded. They are only required when encountering other civilizations.

One has to wonder, perhaps it is not possible for one area, if they wish to interact with another area in something that could be termed a transaction, to not be obliged to their economic rules.

My hope in this paper is to prove that humans can imagine a society, and therefore create and reappropriate space so that Rational Choice Theory, Economies of Scales, and Capitalism are no longer required without what a socialist would term a "world revolution". It seems that this may not be the case, but I will not that make decision based off of only one episode.

Boom out.