Part one is here.
Charge it to my account
One of the key features of the enlightened 24th century is that the Federation no longer uses money – this comes up as a key plot point on a few occasions in TNG and DS9. But in Encounter at Farpoint, we see Crusher purchasing some fabric from Farpoint Station, with instructions to the vendor to “charge it to my account”. This line was written before it was definitively established that Federation had no money, but can we make sense of it in-universe? Continue reading