History YMMV / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E16BarAssociation

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Is the Bajoran cleansing ritual really cutting into Quark's profits as he claims, or is he just making shit up as an excuse to maximize his profits at his employees' expense?
** Both are possible - immediate business is clearly slow and it's not an excuse that's plainly incredible to the crew, but Quark would surely know what happens this way annually and would surely use an excuse that's merely so-so as good enough to squeeze profit out of wages.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: While the episode is strongly pro-union, it's hard not to sympathize a little with Quark. With almost no revenue coming in for a month, most businesses would need to find a way to cut expenses, and he ''does'' say that it's a choice of either cutting everyone's salaries or firing half the staff. Although, a third option that is also almost always ignored in real life as well is that ''Quark'' can take a cut in his profits to retain his staff at full pay. Just like higher-ups in real-life businesses, [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E01TheHomecoming we've seen Quark takes an inordinately large share of the profits]], so he could handle taking a smaller amount so that his employees don't lose their own pay, especially considering that it's established in this episode that he pays nothing to the Federation for rent or upkeep. Of course, given how greedy Quark is, he would never consider it.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: While the episode is strongly pro-union, it's hard not to sympathize a little with Quark. With almost no revenue coming in for a month, most businesses would need to find a way to cut expenses, and he ''does'' say that it's a choice of either cutting everyone's salaries or firing half the staff.
** Although, a third option that is also almost always ignored in real life as well is that ''Quark'' can take a cut in his profits to retain his staff at full pay. Just like higher-ups in real-life businesses, [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E01TheHomecoming we've seen Quark takes an inordinately large share of the profits]], so he could handle taking a smaller amount so that his employees don't lose their own pay, especially considering that it's established in this episode that he pays nothing to the Federation for rent or upkeep. Of course, given how greedy Quark is, he would never consider it.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: While the episode is strongly pro-union, it's hard not to sympathize a little with Quark. With almost no revenue coming in for a month, most businesses would need to find a way to cut expenses, and he ''does'' say that it's a choice of either cutting everyone's salaries or firing half the staff

* StrawmanHasAPoint: While the episode is strongly pro-union, it's hard not to sympathize a little with Quark. With almost no revenue coming in for a month, most businesses would need to find a way to cut expenses.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: A mild case; it's not an especially ''un''popular episode in the U.S., but the storyline is one that resonates more with European viewers, for whom workers' unions are generally more likely to be part and parcel of life. In the U.S., while unions are still pretty commonplace they tend to be regarded with much more suspicion, as they (fairly or otherwise) had a reputation as being breeding grounds for Communism during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, and before that, for sometimes being fronts for organized crime during Prohibition and then TheGreatDepression.
* StrawmanHasAPoint: With business slow on account of the cleansing festival, the bar just isn't making enough profit to continue paying everyone their current wages. Not to mention plenty of previous episodes established that the bar has always run on a narrow profit margin. Then again, considering that bar apparently [[FriendsRentControl pays neither rent nor utility bills]], and is always full, and that Quark has had several years to work out how to deal with the Bajoran holiday season impacting his business, [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation just how bad a businessman is Quark, anyway, if he can't afford to pay his staff?]] Of course, YMMV on just ''who'' is the {{Strawman}} in this episode. ''Or if there even is one.''
** Part of this is FridgeBrilliance that Quark has always been using the bar as a cover for his illegal activities that were the real source of his profit (see things like "Little Green Men"). Things that were severely curtailed by Odo over the years.

* FridgeLogic: [=DS9=] is a Bajoran space station led by a Federation Starfleet officer. Even with Quark not pressing charges, Brunt really has no basis in his high and mighty attitude; no matter how often he says he's from the FCA, the FCA itself has no authority on [=DS9=].

* FridgeLogic: {{DS9}} is a Bajoran space station led by a Federation Starfleet officer. Even with Quark not pressing charges, Brunt really has no basis in his high and mighty attitude; no matter how often he says he's from the FCA, the FCA itself has no authority on {{DS9}}.

* FridgeLogic: DS9 is a Bajoran space station led by a Federation Starfleet officer. Even with Quark not pressing charges, Brunt really has no basis in his high and mighty attitude; no matter how often he says he's from the FCA, the FCA itself has no authority on DS9.

* WriterOnBoard: As Website/SFDebris noted, with all the union people working on this episode, there was no way Rom and his union were going to be presented as anything but blameless and noble and no way the forces of business were going to be presented with ''any'' sympathy or nuance whatsoever--to the point where Rom gloating over the sight of his brother in sickbay, having nearly been ''beaten to '''death''''', is [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic presented as an unambiguously good thing]]. YMMV on this too, depending on which side of the picket line where one is standing.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: With business slow on account of the cleansing festival, the bar just isn't making enough profit to continue paying everyone their current wages. Not to mention plenty of previous episodes established that the bar has always run on a narrow profit margin. Then again, considering that bar apparently [[FriendsRentControl pays neither rent nor utility bills]], and is always full, [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation just how bad a businessman is Quark, anyway, if he can't afford to pay his staff?]] Of course, YMMV on just ''who'' is the {{Strawman}} in this episode. ''Or if there even is one.''

* StrawmanHasAPoint: With business slow on account of the cleansing festival, the bar just isn't making enough profit to continue paying everyone their current wages. Not to mention plenty of previous episodes established that the bar has always run on a narrow profit margin.
** Then again, considering that bar apparently [[FriendsRentControl pays neither rent nor utility bills]], and is always full, [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation just how bad a businessman is Quark, anyway, if he can't afford to pay his staff?]]
*** Of course, YMMV on just ''who'' is the {{Strawman}} in this episode. ''Or if there even is one.''
* WriterOnBoard: As Website/SFDebris noted, with all the union people working on this episode, there was no way Rom and his union were going to be presented as anything but blameless and noble and no way the forces of business were going to be presented with ''any'' sympathy or nuance whatsoever--to the point where Rom gloating over the sight of his brother in sickbay, having nearly been ''beaten to '''death''''', is [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic presented as an unambiguously good thing]].
** YMMV on this too, depending on which side of the picket line where one is standing.

*** Of course, YMMV on just ''who'' is the {{Strawman}} in this episode. ''Or if there even is one.''

** Then again, considering that bar apparently [[FriendsRentControl pays neither rent nor utility bills]], and is always full, [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation just how bad a businessman is Quark, anyway, if he can't afford to pay his staff?]]

* Then again, considering that bar apparently [[FriendsRentControl pays neither rent nor utility bills]], and is always full, [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation just how bad a businessman is Quark, anyway, if he can't afford to pay his staff?]]

* StrawmanHasAPoint: With business slow on account of the cleansing festival, the bar just isn't making enough profit to continue paying everyone their current wages. Not to mention plenty of previous episodes established that the bar has always run on a narrow profit margin.