Debt: The First 5000 Years

Debt: The First 5000 Years is a 2011 book by David Graeber which explores the historical relationship of debt with social institutions such as barter, marriage, friendship, slavery, law, religion, war and government; in short, much of the fabric of human life in society. It draws on the history and anthropology of a number of civilizations, large and small, from the first known records of debt from Sumer in 3500 BC until the present.

Summary

On The Experience of Moral Confusion

Recounting a garden party at Westminster Abbey in 2009, David Graeber describes a conversation with an anti-poverty lawyer about his actions in the Global Justice Movement. Specifically aimed at cancelling all third world debt, which the woman regarded as unfair, as 'Surely one must pay ones debts'. This doesn't even make sense from an economic perspective, since lenders need to accept a degree of risk or else the whole system would collapse in a day. He realized that she was making a moral argument, which deeply bothered him, as that language is often used to justify authoritarianism, kidnapping, war, violence, genocide and poverty. Drawing an example about how austerity had killed 10,000 people in Madagascar due to the cutting of mosquito net programs for the IMF. The basic moral statement at the heart of 'one must pay ones debts' makes it the easiest method to justify violent actions. With the third-world nations owing great amounts of money to the developed world having eerie similarities with the colonial era, and how many nations indebted to the USA allow for the construction of US military bases on their territory, allowing for a new global empire.

External Links

• Debt: The First 5000 Years at libcom.org