Here's what I wrote:
What is Debt?
Debt is a measure of credit that has been put to use, and a record of required repayment.
Debt is a cost.
Debt is a measure of credit that has been put to use, and a record of required repayment.
Debt is a cost.
Here are words that fill the box, repeated by the usually excellent Syll:
What is Debt?
What’s been happening since Nixon went off the gold standard in 1971 has just been another turn of the wheel – though of course it never happens the same way twice. However, in one sense, I think we’ve been going about things backwards. In the past, periods dominated by virtual credit money have also been periods where there have been social protections for debtors. Once you recognize that money is just a social construct, a credit, an IOU, then first of all what is to stop people from generating it endlessly?
What’s been happening since Nixon went off the gold standard in 1971 has just been another turn of the wheel – though of course it never happens the same way twice. However, in one sense, I think we’ve been going about things backwards. In the past, periods dominated by virtual credit money have also been periods where there have been social protections for debtors. Once you recognize that money is just a social construct, a credit, an IOU, then first of all what is to stop people from generating it endlessly?
Focus, now. The question was, "What is debt?"
2 comments:
Just for context, if you click through Syll's link to the source of that Graeber excerpt, it was a reply to this question as part of an interview:
"Let’s move on to some of the real world problems facing the world today. We know that in many Western countries over the past few years households have been running up enormous debts, from credit card debts to mortgages (the latter of which were one of the root causes of the recent financial crisis). Some economists are saying that economic growth since the Clinton era was essentially run on an unsustainable inflating of household debt. From an historical perspective what do you make of this phenomenon?"
Immediately prior to that, a more direct answer "What is debt?" question was offered:
"PP: Which do you see as playing a more important role in human history: money or debt?
DG: Well, it depends on your definitions. If you define money in the broadest sense, as any unit of account whereby you can say 10 of these are worth 7 of those, then you can’t have debt without money. Debt is just a promise that can be quantified by means of money (and therefore, becomes impersonal, and therefore, transferable.) But if you are asking which has been the more important form of money, credit or coin, then probably I would have to say credit."
So: Debt is just a promise that can be quantified by means of money (and therefore, becomes impersonal, and therefore, transferable.)
That's what you're going with? Just a promise?
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