Debt: the First 5k Years

[oddlots]

Fascinating short article about the origins of money in conquest and slavery. Touches also on debt-money systems with and without the safety valve of the debt jubilee and the waxing and waning of the state success at harnessing the essential social energy of exchange through various instruments.

http://www.eurozine.com/articles/200...raeber-en.html

I get excited when I read something that decisively pierces my own historical narcissism. I find it completely plausible that citizens of some other age actually had a better understanding of what's important than we do. I wouldn't say the author claims this and I wouldn't know what to do with such a revelation if I had it, but there's great food for thought here.

Paul Kedrosky was the source: http://paul.kedrosky.com/

[don]

Re: Debt: the First 5k Years

I find it completely plausible that citizens of some other age actually had a better understanding of what's important than we do.

It's probably a fairly small window of optimal societal insight, falling between literally struggling to survive (including being worked to death in the early industrial age) and the 24/7 noise factor of today's technology and commodification of everything on the planet. Maybe a 50 to 75 year time span for society at large. Elites have always had time for reflection, a powerful tool for remaining the elite!