Ferengi Values vs. Federation Values.

The stationary setting of Deep Space Nine was a concern in the beginning and has often been criticized by Star Trek fans. But what the premise lacks in terms of discovering strange new worlds it makes up for in getting to know strange new cultures. Forcing Federation personnel and aliens from many different societies to live together day after day allowed the writers to explore important social issues—and to do so on a long scale.

In this episode of The Orb hosts Christopher Jones and Matthew Rushing take a look at one of the starkest contrasts on the station—Ferengi values vs. Federation values. As Robert Hewitt Wolfe said, "The Ferengi are us. That's the gag, the Ferengis are humans." We set out to determine if the Ferengi are in fact the closest analogy in Star Trek to twentieth and twenty-first center humans by examining Ferengi and Federation views of prosperity, labor practices, women's rights, and education.