Debt: The First 5,000 Years: Difference between revisions

Debt: The First 5,000 Years (view source)

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 To incentivise parents to pick up their kids on time, the centre introduced a small but meaningful “late fee” for those who were more than ten minutes late. But rather than this reducing late pick-ups, average delinquency in those centres ''doubled''. What happened? The Gneezy surmises: the fixed penalty put a ''monetary value'' on the inconvenience: it converted a ''moral'' obligation into a ''financial'' one. In doing so something meaningful was lost.
-That something is the motivating force behind this highly entertaining, learned, and stimulating book. David Graeber’s history —and there’s plenty of history, right back to the myth — yes, myth — of the foundation of money in barter — poses this central question: what happens when we reduce our sense of morality and justice to the language of a business deal?
+That something is the motivating force behind this highly entertaining, learned, and stimulating book. David Graeber’s history —and there’s plenty of history, right back to the myth — yes, myth — of the foundation of money in [[barter]] — poses this central question: what happens when we reduce our sense of morality and justice to the language of a business deal?
 “What,” Graeber asks in the first chapter, “does it mean when we reduce moral obligations to debts?”