Debt: The First 5,000 Years | David Graeber | Talks at Google

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Strong rec seoguru · 2014-03 · on “Ask HN: What is money?”

The theory of a barter economy as the origin of money has been debunked by David Graeber: [this video] (I find his talk fascinating). He gets into what money is around minute 19. Whether you buy his arguments or not, modern money works like this: The state requires payment of currency (fees, fines, taxes, etc), the state spends currency (of course it must spend it before it can ever collect it). The money derives its value via the demand for it from the soverign. I like this analogy that Warren Mosler uses in his "Seven Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy": [LINK] The story begins with parents creating coupons they then use to pay their children for doing various household chores. Additiona

Strong rec apsurd · 2020-12 · on “Slack wanted to stay independent, but was unable to compete with tech giants”

Late to the party but wanted to make sure to contribute this excellent talk by the late David Graeber about the history of debt. It includes the concept of Jubilee. [this video]

Recommends primroot · 2013-11 · on “You can't beat politics with new technology all the time”

I find the "8000 years" claim in the parent comment to be interesting. My understanding is that it is false, and that metallic money is a way, in which armies impose themselves over populations. This talk by anthropologist David Graeber illustrates my point [this video]

Recommends igravious · 2017-09 · on “How Big Banks Became Our Masters”

Yup! Fortunately you don't even have to read it from cover to cover to get the meat of it. Here [this video] is a talk 80 mins long Graeber gave at Google. Then once you've done that listen [LINK] to Robert Paul Wolff talk about the problem Ricardo, Smith, and Marx tackled. This one is a bit longer and it is tougher going but the pay-off is immense. –– What this New York Times article and the recent Bloomberg [LINK] (“Why Wages Aren't Growing”) article that hit the front page here have in common is that they both refuse to recognise that Marx's critique of capital was correct in his day and it _remains_ correct. The next part is important. We _must_ separate the critique from his proposed solutio

Recommends 317070 · 2020-02 · on “Varoufakis to Publish Notorious Eurogroup Recordings from 2015 Meetings”

I think you do get this correct. It is the bank's responsibility to assign its loans properly. That's the risk they take and why they get to collect an interest. Maybe watch this video of David Graeber from start until 5:20, [this video] He makes the point more clearly. I mean, do I get this correct? Would you say that when people need to pay their debts, the bank gets to enforce measures despite it causing the debtor's children dying (i.e. increased child mortality)? I might have gotten you wrong here. It is not easy to parse a 100+ word sentence.

Recommends xster · 2021-12 · on “Weapons on Ancient Coins”

I guess the implicit question is why such obsession on fighting and weapons on the coins. Anthropologist David Graeber has a fascinating perspective ( [this video] ). He posits that our present assumptions about money (first there's barter, then coins and fiat money, then credit) is actually backwards. And that primitive societies rather had interlocking systems of informal credit between everyone instead, since everyone knew everyone and you only really needed to settle the difference very infrequently. And coins only really came into play as a supply logistics mechanism for traveling armies. Since a band of people traveling through town can't participate in the informal credit system. And so th

Recommends yboris · 2023-01 · on “The language of labouring reveals its tortured roots (2013)”

Seems related: Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber [LINK] The concept of "debt" has a long history that is surprising and illuminating. A really excellent book. For a shorter version, see his talk at Google: [this video]

Recommends brudgers · 2024-04 · on “Ask HN: Should there be "computer showers" similar to "baby showers"?”

It's not the way I grew up, but there are group friendship patterns where friends give each other gifts just because it's what the group of friends do. It surprised me when I saw it in action. But that's because I had the same reaction as you...it costs money and I was not raised to value friendships more than money. But some people are and the world is not worse for it. It creates reciprocal obligations...debts. Here is an interesting talk on debt by the late David Graeber: [this video]