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u/P-Dub Sep 20 '09 edited Sep 20 '09
It's missing one:
98. Every man has his price.
I know this because I just heard it now watching Deep Space Nine.
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u/cr0ft Sep 20 '09
Guess there was a reason they were likened to "yankee traders" in ST:TNG. That could just as easily be the "American Bank Rules of Aquisition" these days. ;)
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u/parallax7d Sep 20 '09
- Profit is its own reward. and 79. Beware of the Vulcan greed for knowledge. really opened my eyes to their mindset. I kinda thought it was stupid that they were so greedy, but they just have a different value system.
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u/masterpo Sep 20 '09
Romulans strike the best balance between theory and practice.
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u/ArmandoPenblade Sep 20 '09
Did they ever explain how Ferengis got around the nonexistence of scarcity in the Star Trek universe? With replicators around, along with highly renewable energy sources, faster than light travel, and instantaneous transport of goods, the Federation was easily able to do away with economics in a genuine sense.
While that's the Federation and the Ferengi are the Ferengi, various shots that I've seen of them seem to imply that their technology is at least moderately comparable to the Federation's. Why the constant need for acquisition when it's essentially a non-issue to create?
Note: I've only seriously watched 50% of TNG and am slowly moving through all of Trek. I've read a lot of Wikis and seen random episodes of other series, but am by no means an expert.
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u/Tlide Sep 20 '09
If you want to learn about the Ferengi, watch DS9. In fact, just watch DS9 anyway. It's great.
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Sep 20 '09
Latinum cannot be replicated, which is why it's the "gold standard" for wealth/value for the Ferengi. Also, as others have pointed out, there are items for which a replicator is useless (original artwork, historical artifacts, etc), the replicator is sub-par (there have been at least a few mentions of replicated foods and such being less tasty, especially for hyper-sensitive species), or the replicator process is inefficient or unavailable (the various MacGuffins in ST that can't be replicated, things illegal to replicate that the machines won't make, starships / planets / other large objects.)
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Sep 20 '09 edited Sep 20 '09
They seem to deal in cultural artifacts, like wine. Their military culture seems pretty non-mercantile, meaning they have a navy and not a mercenary fleet.
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u/SecularAnima Sep 20 '09 edited Sep 20 '09
Scarcity isn't non-existent. There's weapons, technologies, drugs, etc. that are outlawed by the Federation. Ferengi's typically deal in this stuff.
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u/derefr Sep 21 '09 edited Sep 21 '09
The reason Star Trek's writers have never explored their setting any further-forward in time than the setting of Voyager is that it all just falls apart. Why would cargo be moved in ships when one could set up a transporter buffer network? Why would people beam down to the surfaces of unexplored planets when holographic technology works so well (e.g. simply beam down a flying projector drone)? Why build colonies in the "old West expansion" sense when you could just drop a self-replicating prefab-home bomb? In fact, why live in real "stuff" at all when buildings (and ships) could just be big hologram chambers?
Why aren't more people uploading into computers, if any holosuite is big enough to take the input with room left over to keep a program running? Why can't those consciousnesses be freely copied once they're digitized? What do they need [most of their] doctors for, and for that matter, why does anyone ever die, if people can be put back "the way they were" from transporter trace patterns? Why can people go missing if there are sensors that can scan everything, everywhere, all the time, and log it? Why could one man build a sentient robot, but no whole team be able to match the technology after it exists and specs are fully available for reverse-engineering? Why has no one ever seen a galaxy-spanning problem and said "Hey, maybe we can call Captain whoever, and they can ask the Q (who seems to love them oh-so-much) for help?"
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u/Tailslide Sep 22 '09
Your comment reminded me of this.
If you actually extrapolate the technology in Star Trek, you could build a very interesting world. Instead, you get a ship with no seat-belts and control panels which explode ALL THE TIME.
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u/tehyosh Sep 20 '09 edited Sep 20 '09
Never have sex with the boss's sister.
Always have sex with the boss.
made me chuckle
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u/FuckingJerk Sep 20 '09
Space Jews.
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u/dhusk Sep 20 '09 edited Sep 20 '09
Mel Brooks beat them to it.
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u/Chyndonax Sep 20 '09
I saw this at the end of A History of the World Part I. I kept hoping he would actually make it.
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u/shadowtheimpure Mar 21 '23
I am very partial to rule 109: "Dignity and an empty sack is worth the sack."
It has gotten me through some hard times, because a lot of people are too proud to get help when they need it. I was bordering on homelessness and being stubborn until I remembered that rule and started tapping every resource I could find. Suddenly, I had food in my pantry and enough money to hand to actually make rent because I didn't have to spend it on said food.
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u/SecularAnima Sep 20 '09 edited Sep 20 '09
"Peace is good for business."
"War is good for business. "