It just doesn't make sense for Concord and ISK to exist in a pure vacuum. There has to be an exchange to baseliner (or at least government) currency.
I'm not sure what I'm arguing anymore, does that make sense? bloody workday has scrambled mah brains.
It makes sense. Mission agents and CONCORD most likely hand out their employers money which must come from the planet side because the NPC sell orders, repair bills, clone installation costs and other station services are not enough to fund it and the lore tells us that that's where Quafe and others do most of their business. Also, ships would not have crews if there were no links between baseliner and capsuleer economies.
Since the money flow from planet side seems to be sustainable, and it flows primarily to one direction only, I guess it is possible that somebody might print currency to pay capsuleers, as this practice wouldn't have effect on the baseliner economy. Still, why would Zoar & Sons, Egonics or Native Freshfood have the right to do so? Money loses its meaning if everyone can print it as needed.
What if the capsuleers are actually not that rich when compared to the baseliners? Perhaps the local currency/ISK exchange ratio is not favourable for the capsuleers and our rewards are actually a small and insignificant cost for our benefactors? Maybe the economies are kept separated so that we can sustain ourselves while being cheap labor for the empires? I know that EVE's intro video says "You are about to become blah blah" but that's exactly what you would say to motivate someone to make the biggest mistake of his/her life.