Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is roughly what I take from it. Graeber presents evidence to back up the idea that debt is precisely that which cannot be repaid or quantized and that the attempt to do so is "naturally" (from several examples) taken as an abnormal or hostile act. There are some really fascinating anthropological stories to support this. I really recommend the book.
.. not exactly that it cannot/is never paid back, but that it is never fully cleared, in normal circumstances.
Shelling Out: The Origins of Money (2002)
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Re: Shelling Out: The Origins of Money (2002)
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
To your comment on borrowing bitcoin, a few exchanges are selling futures, which you can short. This started relatively recently - December.
Well there you go. Does that count as debt though? Money and bitcoin would be exchanged simultaneously so no one ever owes anyone anything. I guess futures are an "obligation"...
Re: Shelling Out: The Origins of Money (2002)
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
>>or the inherent history and math behind Bitcoin and many proof of work cryptocurrencies distributing the supply to only a small group of users and cutting off the ease of producing more coins as easily to later users who use the software. Keep in mind that the value of money derives from the net utility it provides in all of the trades it is used in throughout its lifetime. By implication, the only scenario where a…
How do you foresee cryptocurrency alleviating those problems when existing capital can simply produce and acquire the majority of coins/tokens in existence? For all we know the executives at the Goldman Sachs spent a few million dollars slowly purchasing BTC any any of the other altcoins since day 1. Money only has value if someone is willing to accept it. Existing capital merely transfers into whatever other forex,…
That is still a net gain for society.
Look at it this way: cryptocurrency could potentially replace high rent-extracting institutions, and it would only be able to do so if it provided its owners with much lower levels of economic rent than the institutions it replaced (that's where it derives its efficiency advantage). Just to clarify: economic rent is defined as income that is not derived from productive activity. It is unearned, from a broader economic perspective.
So now imagine the wealthy shareholders of Goldman Sachs sell their shares, and buy up all of the cryptocurrency. They're still very wealthy, but the assets they own don't hold the same unfair advantage that the GS shares that they once owned held.
That is what it means to be in a fairer world. Eliminating opportunities for exploitation (which can roughly be mapped to rent seeking) is how you durably reduce income unequality.
>>That's oddly simplistic. No mention of wages, education, and tax policy?
It's simplistic because it's a very broad analysis that only distinguishes rent-seeking from none-rent-seeking activity.
In this case I think it's appropriate given cryptocurrency has the potential to have a very fundamental impact on the macroeconomic picture. Moreover, speculating about the finer details of its impact might not be all that useful, given how hard it is to anticipate exactly what those more specific effects will be. The broader effects are easier to predict and thus a more appropriate object of speculation in my opinion.