Whenever there’s a storyline with quark, they talk about money/latinum.
I remember in one of the next gen episodes that there was discussion about money and Picard said something about how they’ve moved away from money.
So do Starfleet get paid now?
Update: thank you for the quick responses. From what I’m gathering the tldr is that the following is the answer
- Ferengi love for money/not being a post scarcity society by design
- Bajorans being so near their slavery times and not post scarcity yet
- Quark creating an atmosphere of camaraderie/gambling/upgraded replicators/actual food
All this requires some form of currency.
Plus Starfleet replicators cannot make alcohol.
I don’t think that’s accurate, we saw an episode of lower decks where the group were discussing that Starfleet replicators use a similar chemical that has much shorter lived symptoms.
The exact quotes were tense asking how they were all so drunk when x thing existed and Mariner replying she had started asking real alcohol after the 2 drink.
Replicators make synthehol and alcohol, you choose which variant you want or program in your standard options. Snobs like Scotty and Jean-Luc’s brother say they can taste the difference which is why Guinan keeps “it is green” behind the bar.
