Economics in Science Fiction

Image via WikipediaIn light of the difficult economic times we are living in, I thought it would be interesting to see how science fiction addresses this issue.
The Star Trek Universe is complex in this matter. The United Federation of Planets which includes the planet Earth, does not use money. Now, I ask myself, how then, would all these new technological advances take place? Most everyone wants to invent something new or imagine that original idea that will make them a million dollars (or should I say billion dollars, since I have heard that word so much lately). The idea in Star Trek is that everyone works to better themselves. Would that be incentive enough to continue new avenues of research in medicine, engineering, physics, etc.? So far money has been a great incentive and still is today. Planets that are not part of the Federation still use gold pressed latinum to trade or pay for services. The Ferengi are famous for thier skills in acquiring wealth and even have a Rules of Acquisition that govern their behavior. This poses a problem in story telling for the crowd living on Deep Space Nine and I always wondered how the Federation members paid for their drinks at Quark's Bar? I doubt very much that pay incentives can really be the eliminated from the future of Earth.
I think a better example is the Stargate Universe. The military is running the Stargate, but it has shared the technology with other governments and when other worlds are discovered, technologies can be traded. That makes more sense to me to be able to trade technology while still living in a world where money is earned and spent. My only problem with the Stargate Universe is since it is a military controlled operation, it is kept secret from the rest of the world. Of course, this feeds right into the govt. conspiracy theorists, but I digress.
The Star Trek universe is very appealing, imagine replicating dinner, not paying taxes, and just working to better yourself! I wonder how many people would have the discipline to get up each morning and work! The Stargate Universe is more realistic but we would never know about it!
Even movies have broached the subject such as the Alien film series where getting one of those Aliens to earth was going to bring riches and fortune to the "Company."
In "Contact" research into alien life was considered career suicide and in X-Men the mutants had to find a way to integrate into the world and work and co-exist. I could go on but the bottom line is that money based economics will probably not end in the future and in the mean time we can try to forget about real life even if for a moment in the wonderful stories that science fiction brings to us.