Sunday, September 11, 2011

What is Debt? by David Graeber

Fascinating interview. Here's my favorite bit so far:
And, I might add, if Aristotle were around today, I very much doubt he would think that the distinction between renting yourself or members of your family out to work and selling yourself or members of your family to work was more than a legal nicety. He’d probably conclude that most Americans were, for all intents and purposes, slaves.

(Thanks to Cathy aka mathbabe.)

2 comments:

  1. Most people don't appreciate the choice they do have, so yeah, for them it may be all the same. Actually, I recently got flamed in comments at The Chronicle for even suggesting that professors can choose not to teach in places that contradict their morale (the story is longer but the essence is this).

    However, the difference between slavery and "renting yourself out" seems huge for me.

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