Latinum is only valuable outside of the Federation, where societies are not post-scarcity.
Now, before you argue that there are no material conditions demanding scarcity in (some of) them, I’ll add that artificial scarcity is scarcity nonetheless.
In societies outside the Federation, where they don’t have replicators, things have value due to being able to use them for other purposes. Latinum has never been shown to be used for any other purpose except to trade. Its not clear why a useless material is considered valuable, except for the fact that its rare.
Latinum is only valuable outside of the Federation, where societies are not post-scarcity.
Now, before you argue that there are no material conditions demanding scarcity in (some of) them, I’ll add that artificial scarcity is scarcity nonetheless.
In societies outside the Federation, where they don’t have replicators, things have value due to being able to use them for other purposes. Latinum has never been shown to be used for any other purpose except to trade. Its not clear why a useless material is considered valuable, except for the fact that its rare.
Says a huh-man that uses paper to trade…
That paper is at least backed by the GDP of my country.
That reminds me of that joke:
Two economists are walking side-by-side.
One tells the other: I’ll give you $100 if you take a shit on the pavement.
He proceeds to shit on the pavement and grab the $100.
He then tells the other economist: I’ll give you $100 if you eat my shit.
The other does the deed and collects his $100.
After walking a few more blocks, one of them says: both of us left our dignity with that work back there and neither of us are any richer!
To which the other responds: no, but we grew our combined GDP to $200.
And they both walked away happy, patting each other on their backs.
The point is that we understand the actual paper has no value itself. It’s the commitment of the government backing it that has the value.