I’m glad there is no money in the Federation. Unless you count credits. Which are not money. Unless you use thousands of them to pay the Barzans. Or give them to Starfleet officers to buy things like tribbles and drinks at Quark’s.
I’m glad there is no money in the Federation. Unless you count credits. Which are not money. Unless you use thousands of them to pay the Barzans. Or give them to Starfleet officers to buy things like tribbles and drinks at Quark’s.
But why would other cultures accept those credits if the citizens of the Federation consider them valueless? What good are they to those cultures?
I like to imagine federation credits as something like Euros. If you live in the US, you don’t use Euros. You could go your whole life without using them. But if you travel you need them. If you are a government or military personnel you need them. You could say, “We don’t use Euros in the US.” In the same way Picard says " The federation doesn’t use money."
Some citizens in the US trade Euros. Some Federation members would trade Federation credits. But in general Federation citizens wouldn’t use Federation credits to pay for goods and services.
I imagine they have value because they can be used to buy things from the federation itself.
It’s the same for any currency. Voyager had to barter for goods since credits don’t mean anything in the delta quadrant, but that is less convenient for both parties than a standard currency.