How does housing work in the Federation?

[FaxModem1]

Ok, in the 24th century, I believer they are a moneyless society, or at least they claim so. So, I have to ask, how do people get houses?

Who gets a house and who gets a mansion? Or is everyone supposedly living in a mansion nowadays? Or is it considered bad to live in a mansion in the 24th century? Is there some sort of meritocracy going on? Is it based on your job or location?

Is this the reason for people founding colonies on other planets? Because of space?

Any and all answers are welcome.

[NecronLord]

Wrong forum.

We don't know, as an oxbridge professor, data did seem to have a mansion.

[Eviscerator]

Im guessing something analogous to how on-base/on-site housing is issued? Prioritise by rank/position, and then by family size.

Like example: Ranking officer with so-and-so size of family gets X size of accomodation and single bachelor gets a room in the bachelor quarter

[Bounty]

Just because money doesn't exist as it did in the 21st century doesn't mean there isn't a form of abstracted currency that buys luxuries. You can have free basic housing - the apartments we see officers in - and spend credits on more land/historic buildings/a penthouse/whatever.

[Serafina]

Whenever we saw earth, we saw that not everyone lives in a mansion. Basically, we have all the forms of housing we have today.

Since there is pretty strong evidence that the Federation is communistic, housing is most likely based on rank:
A politican will get a big mansion, and so will an Admiral. A Captain would get a smaller but luxurious home. Other officers a big, comfortable apartment. Noncoms will get good apartments slightly above the normal standard.
High-ranking scientists may be treated as captains and officers, based on their perceived importance.
Normal citizens would get small apartmens, depending on their needs - most likely something close to whereever they work.

So yes, it is somewhat of a meritocracy.

[FSTargetDrone]

Picard's brother had a comfortable home in France with its working vineyards.

Didn't he have people working for him? I can't remember. I don't see how he, his wife and their son did everything themselves.

[Srelex]

Picard's brother had a comfortable home in France with its working vineyards.

Didn't he have people working for him? I can't remember. I don't see how he, his wife and their son did everything themselves.

I definitely remember him having some sort of farmhand there.

[Broomstick]

Picard's brother had a comfortable home in France with its working vineyards.

Didn't he have people working for him? I can't remember. I don't see how he, his wife and their son did everything themselves.

Automation?

[FSTargetDrone]

Didn't he have people working for him? I can't remember. I don't see how he, his wife and their son did everything themselves.

Automation?

Hm, possibly, but unless I'm confusing him with someone else (haven't seen the episode in quite awhile), didn't Picard offer his brother a replicator, or at least suggest he and his wife get one? If I remember rightly, he (the brother) seemed perturbed by the idea of that and I wonder if automated farming would have been just as unpalatable to him as was the convenience of replicators.

EDIT:

Just looked at Memory Alpha's entry (whish is what I should have done before!) and according to that,

Robert says that thanks to technology, even cooking is fast becoming a lost art and Marie says they've had several "discussions" about getting a replicator in the house. Jean-Luc is reminded of the same discussions between their mother and father. Robert says that he feels, just like their father, that with all this technology there is a real danger of losing those values which humanity holds most precious. Jean-Luc says that you shouldn't have to lose anything just by adding a convenience but Robert counters by opinionatedly stating that life is already too convenient.

And at the top of the page, there is a low-res screenshot and you can see what looks like several figures working in the vineyards. I don't know if those are supposed to be generic people (famhands?) or perhaps a shot of the Picard brothers.

Srelex may be right. The MA entry doesn't say either way. I'll have to find the episode somewhere and see. It's called "Family."

In any case, the home and land have been in the Picard family for generations. So land can be inherited, it would seem.

[Swindle1984]

In the TNG episode where that alien was pretending to a dead kid's mom (his mom got killed by an ancient boobytrap and the aliens tried to recreate her to please the kid), we saw a recreation of the home a single Starfleet officer (historian on the ship) and her son lived in. We only saw the living room, but it was pretty large and FULL of "historic" decorations.

We've also seen the luxurious personal quarters on the Enterprise-D, as well as the clean, almost spartan, lifestyle of many aboard the same ship.

[Gandalf]

In the TNG episode where that alien was pretending to a dead kid's mom (his mom got killed by an ancient boobytrap and the aliens tried to recreate her to please the kid), we saw a recreation of the home a single Starfleet officer (historian on the ship) and her son lived in. We only saw the living room, but it was pretty large and FULL of "historic" decorations.

Perhaps with the seeming ease of moving off world, Earth might have a low population density which would make larger houses more feasible?

Also, with there being no poverty (at least on Earth) there might be a lower rate of human population growth.

[Swindle1984]

On the other hand, we've seen Earth's city streets (notably in Voyager when Harry Kim enters that alternate dimension where he never joined the crew) and they're not that impressive. For instance, the curbs were crumbling.

[Bounty]

Looks like a perfectly normal street to me.

[Skylon]

On the other hand, we've seen Earth's city streets (notably in Voyager when Harry Kim enters that alternate dimension where he never joined the crew) and they're not that impressive. For instance, the curbs were crumbling.

Parts of Earth seem dedicated to keeping the "old Earth" look, some cross it over, otherwise are outright futuristic. New Orleans for example looks like it holds onto a "classic" look:



Some seem to be a bit of a cross like Paris (which also shows some mass transit):



And you get places like Mojave which has had the landscape totally altered:

[Gil Hamilton]

Huh, Paris must have undergone some real changes in the future if the Parisians didn't outright balk at the notion of putting skyscrapers in the city rather than in La Defense. That means they must of (A) given up the architecture laws and (B) filled in the catacombs under the city, which prevent skyscrapers from being safely built anyway.

I think that on Earth in general, people probably live in much the same sort of housing people do now. Earth's population density, in the future, appears to be smaller, as though they never really grew in population (I understand Earth's population is steady at about six billion). We've seen houses, apartments, even reasonably large houses. Elsewhere in the Federation on human worlds, people tend to have houses (witness the Horrible TNG Episode Sub Rosa) or live in apartments.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Where did that pic of the Mojave come from?

[Broomstick]

"The Cage", first pilot of the original series.

[panache]

Maybe all you get for "free" is four walls and a cot, if you want more you have to work for it. You don't get paided in money, but you put into society, you get compensated for it.

Gene Roddenberry wrote in the novelization of ST:TMP that increasingly people were living under ground, could be your living quarters were bigger it you didn't want windows.

[Covenant]

They haven't outlawed the possession of latinum either, from any evidence we've seen. People could certainly have some kind of barter system where privately owned property (such as things that are owned because they were around before the public housing programs came into being, and have not been purchased by those agencies) are either swapped for latinum or federation credits (which I believe were briefly mentioned in TOS and could realistically be some kind of federation currency).

They may also not be entirely communistic, and just be socialized to the point that all 'income' would be automatically taxed, and then a portion given back the same way you can get a tax refund. Such a system would encourage people to better themselves by providing an incentive to opening a business, providing a service, or getting a job. Maybe working at the Picard vinyard doesn't pay anything, but being a registered Historical Trades Craftsman or whatever gets you a discretionary spending allowance above the normal allotment.

This could also be one of the reasons people join Starfleet or Federation military, besides the starry-eyed officers corps.