David Graeber: Debt The First 5,000 Years

FONTS

David Graeber: Debt The First 5,000 Years

Chapters 3&4: Primordial Debts/Cruelty and Redemption

Chapter 4: Cruelty and Redemption

Theories Mentioned In Chapter 3

State & Credit Theories of Money

"There are, he famously observed, two sides to any coin" (p.73)

"Credit Theorists insisted that money is not

a commodity but an accounting tool." (p.46)

"But if money and markets do not emerge

spontaneously, it actually makes perfect sense." (p.49)

The head of the coin represents political authority which minted the coin and is also a symbol of credit. While the tail represents the precise specification of the amount that the coin is worth as payment for exchange.

• Both taxes are and markets spring up around armies in order to meet the needs of the society created by the state

• Money is an abstract unit of measurement, untouchable.
• Money measures debt. It is an IOU.
• A banknote is a promise to pay back a certain amount of debt.

Therefore, this answers the question of money being either a commodity or and IOU, it is both.

"...the value of a unit of currency is not the

measure of the value of an object, but the

measure of one's trust in other human

beings." (p.47)

"Our two origin stories-the myth of barter and the myth of primordial debt-may appear to be about as far apart as they could be, but in their own way, they are also two sides of the same coin. One assumes the other. It's only once we can imagine human life as a series of commercial transactions that we're capable of seeing our relation to the universe in terms of debt." (p.75)

"Say a king wishes to support a standing army of fifty thousand men. Under ancient or medieval conditions,feeding such a force was an enormous problem-unless they were on the march, one would need to employ almost as many men and animals just to locate, acquire, and transport the necessary provisions. On the other hand, if one simply hands out coins to the soldiers and then demands that every family in the kingdom was obliged to pay one of those coins back to you, one would, in one blow, turn one's entire national economy into a vast machine for the provisioning of soldiers, since now every family, in order to get their hands on the coins, must find some way to contribute to the general effort to provide soldiers with things they want. Markets are brought into existence as a side effect." (p.49-50)

• How did credit money come about? Joshua to Henry or Lola to Joshua to Henry -- all relies on trusting Henry (p.46)

The issues with all of the myths presented in the text is that they conceive humanity intrinsically commercial, which ultimately is dehumanizing and leads to cruelty.

"Governments use taxes to create money, and they are able to do so because they have become the guardians of the debt that all citizens have to one another." (p.56)

Graeber Contradiction?

Terms to know:

Quote from Chapter 3- Primordial Debts

"The problem is that history shows that without money, such vast (barter) systems do not occur." (p.45)

• Barter: the action or system of exchanging goods or services without using money. Ex: wanting croissants, eggs and orange juice from chap.2 (p.22)
• Exchange: an act of giving one thing and receiving another (especially of the same type of value) in return.
• Credit: the ability of a customer to obtain goods or services before payment, based on the trust that payment will be made in the future.
• Primordial: existing from the beginning of time: ancient

Don't these quotes contradict the very definition of barter. Also, Graeber notes that money is in fact unimportant and simply acts as a veil to cover the real essence of exchange which was just to trade goods for other goods (barter). But in the quote above makes it seem as if without money vast baterting systems don't even occur...

Quote from Chapter 2- The Myth of Barter

"No example of a barter economy, pure and simple, has ever been described, let alone the emergence from it of money; all available ethnography suggests that there never has been such a thing." (p.29)

-Caroline Humphrey

Cruelty

Redemption

Theories Mentioned In Chapter 3 Cont.

Primordial Debt Theory

The primordial debt theory is very interesting, it basically states that just being alive is a debt. In the sense that we owe our parents for bringing us into the world, meaning that you are essentially born with debt as well. The fault in this theory is that you cannot pay this debt back. There is no monetary value to repay your parents for giving you life (refer to pg. 58). This is what Graeber means when he talks about early religions believing that our time on earth was borrowed and therefore, sacrifice was a way of "paying off" our primordial debt (refer to pg. 57). Another way of thinking of it is debt to your ancestors because without them and what they did then you would not have the things that you have. Therefore, with this mentality kings and emperors were able to justify the imposition of taxes.

"The primary meaning of "redemption" is to buy something back, or to recover something that had been given up in security for a loan; to acquire something by paying off a debt" (p.80). But when speaking religiously redemption has a different meaning, Graeber uses the exodus story to highlight this meaning. The Hebrews were forced into slavery but once they had repented for their sins and restored their full faith into God they were then taken to the promise land and relieved of all of their sins. In this context then, redemption is the release from one's burden of sin or guilt. "If so, "redemption" is no longer about buying something back.

It's really more a matter of destroying the entire system of accounting" (p.82).

Graeber uses the work of Nietzsche to illustrate the existence of cruelty through the distinction of debt as guilt. He points out that during Nietzsche's time, to be in debt was to be guilty and creditors took joy in punishing the guilty. This was because as Nietzsche states, "When humans did begin to form communities, Nietzsche continues,they necessarily began to imagine their relationship to the community

in these terms. The tribe provides them with peace and security. They are therefore in its debt. Obeying its laws is a way of paying it back ( "paying your debt to society" again) . But this debt, he says, is also paid-here too-in sacrifice" (p.77). Goes back to the primordial debt theory.

Primordial debt would make one feel indebted to their society causing them to obey the laws and do everything that they can to somehow repay this debt. Hence why Nietzsche notes the correlation between the terms guilt and debt. If one breaks a law then they have broken their promise to their society and therefore must be punished which is why they are sent to jail.