- 10 Aug 2021 13:16
#15184702
We were discussing money earlier. I have been reading Debt, the first 5,000 years. The author points out that debt is about more than money. When a prisoner is released, it is said he paid his debt. In a time of war, your obligation to fight can be seen as paying a debt to society. I'm not doing it justice, this is just for setting the stage.
At the same time, economics tends to see a person as starting life without debt. There is a tension between those two ideas that you can see in writing that goes back over 2,000 years. Long before Christianty the Vedic works talked about debt.
Point is, the tension between those two ideas hasn't gotten much attention. Moreover, the extreme of either side is insane. For example, Russia used to say they paid to raise you and educate you. You had no right to emigrate and deny them a return on that investment.
Anyway, the book is incredible, he just linked Adam Smith, Comte and Nietzsche through the way they wrote about debt. I spent some time doing that sort of thing, and didn't get a tenth as much done as he did.
At the same time, economics tends to see a person as starting life without debt. There is a tension between those two ideas that you can see in writing that goes back over 2,000 years. Long before Christianty the Vedic works talked about debt.
Point is, the tension between those two ideas hasn't gotten much attention. Moreover, the extreme of either side is insane. For example, Russia used to say they paid to raise you and educate you. You had no right to emigrate and deny them a return on that investment.
Anyway, the book is incredible, he just linked Adam Smith, Comte and Nietzsche through the way they wrote about debt. I spent some time doing that sort of thing, and didn't get a tenth as much done as he did.
Facts have a well known liberal bias