• 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.