• merc@sh.itjust.works
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    7 days ago

    “Debt brained”? Dude, “debt” has existed as long as humanity has existed. You’re the one who’s “debt brained” for thinking it’s a bad thing. That’s just society.

    In a society people do favours for each-other and what makes it a society is that the person who had a favour done for them acknowledges that as a member of that society, they should try to pay the favour back at some point, otherwise they just seem like a drain on that society. That doesn’t mean that you can’t also have gifts, it just means that sometimes aid isn’t given as a form of gift, it’s given with an expectation that at some future point the giftee will become the gifter.

    • theneverfox@pawb.social
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      7 days ago

      That’s just totally incorrect. Most people throughout history didn’t even use money, let alone debt. Taxes were paid in grain, livestock, and essentially community service

      Debt created money, but money is not as old as humanity. It’s not required, it’s not coded into our genes

      And counting favors is widely accepted to be shitty behavior. It’s transactional, it’s low trust

      You can just do favors, and call the guy who never helps out a lazy asshole. They’re unreliable so people eventually don’t want to help them, and we have all sorts of fairy tales about it

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        7 days ago

        That’s just totally incorrect. Most people throughout history didn’t even use money, let alone debt.

        You need to read “Debt: The First 5,000 Years” by David Graeber. Debt goes back a lot longer than money, and has been part of human existence for as long as that existence has been recorded.

        There is no human civilization without debt.

        • theneverfox@pawb.social
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          7 days ago

          I said that, money was created from debt, of course debt came first

          What about the Incas? I’m sure there’s others, but we know a lot about them and their economic system, and they only fell because of outside interference

          • merc@sh.itjust.works
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            7 days ago

            You also said:

            Most people throughout history didn’t even use money, let alone debt

            So, why not just admit you’re not well informed on this subject and leave it there?

            • theneverfox@pawb.social
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              7 days ago

              Ok, now you’re just splitting hairs. But I will concede the word debt means more than what I’m using it for

              But there’s a difference between “I did this for you, and it’s expected you’ll reciprocate later” and a formalized version of this

              I don’t know how to put it into words yet, but the merchant of Venice is about the idea I’m circling around. Reciprocity is one thing, selling the future, which is always uncertain, is another

              One of these things is the fabric of community, the other is evil

              • merc@sh.itjust.works
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                6 days ago

                You’re the one splitting hairs. I made sure you meant all forms of debt several times, and now you’re trying to redefine what you mean by debt now that you’ve been shown to be wrong.