{"id":415,"date":"2012-04-03T13:19:26","date_gmt":"2012-04-03T13:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rulesofreason.wordpress.com\/?p=415"},"modified":"2012-04-03T13:19:26","modified_gmt":"2012-04-03T13:19:26","slug":"debt-and-the-nature-of-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=415","title":{"rendered":"Debt and the nature of money"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I wrote<\/a> that David Graeber’s book<\/a> opens your eyes, that was not just a figure of speech. First, consider this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, Theodoros Mavridis has bought fresh eggs, tsipourou <\/em>(the local brandy: beware), fruit, olives, olive oil, jam, and soap. He has also had some legal advice, and enjoyed the services of an accountant to help fill in his tax return. None of it has cost him a euro, because he had previously done a spot of electrical work \u2013 repairing a TV, sorting out a dodgy light \u2013 for some of the 800-odd members of a fast-growing exchange network in the port town of Volos, midway between Athens and Thessaloniki.
\nIn return for his expert labour, Mavridis received a number of Local Alternative Units (known as tems in Greek<\/a>) in his online network account. In return for the eggs, olive oil, tax advice and the rest, he transferred tems into other people’s accounts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fascinating, but also completely understandable according to a token theory of money. Whether you call it euro, drahma, or tems doesn’t really matter. It is just a unit of exchange<\/em>. For the\u00a0community within which it functions, it doesn’t need\u00a0the backing of\u00a0the state (or a central bank) or a gold\u00a0standard. Of course, the limitation is that the system can only function within a relatively small community:<\/p>\n

“It’s also a way of showing practical solidarity \u2013 of building relationships.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This quote directly links to Graeber’s argument about the intimate association between debt and community: the tems<\/em> are nothing less than a system of keeping track of (small) debts within a circle of trust<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What is also characteristic is the Guardian’s subtitle of the mateiral: A determination to ‘move beyond anger to creativity’ is driving a strong barter<\/strong> economy in some places <\/em>[emphasis mine]. <\/em>Having read Graeber, one immediately recognizes that the ingenious Greek system of tems<\/em> is the exact opposite of barter – people are not exchanging goods directly (barter) but through the medium of small debts, and the tems<\/em> which keep track on the debts. The myth of the barter origin of money shows its ugly head even when one observes\u00a0in\u00a0vivo<\/em>\u00a0the origin of money as a system to count and manage debts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And now, the second case. Normally, at the local cafeteria at my university in the Netherlands you can pay either in cash or using the cashless Chipknip<\/a> system (it’s like paying with a debit card but no pin required). The latter option is much more popular since in this country one can pay almost everywhere with the Chipknip or PIN (both on the same card).\u00a0A few weeks ago, the Chipknip terminal at the cafeteria broke down and one was required to search\u00a0his pockets for small change to get\u00a0his daily caffeine fix. During these weeks, on more than one occasion I actually didn’t\u00a0have\u00a0enough\u00a0coins to get a coffee. Apparently, I\u00a0wasn’t the only one.\u00a0Once the Chipknip machine was repaired,\u00a0there was\u00a0a note from the cafeteria requesting all people to clear the debts<\/strong> they had accumulated\u00a0over the period the machine was out of order. So the cashless economy didn’t revert to\u00a0cash transactions (coins) but miraculously, and instantaneously,\u00a0transformed itself into a system of debt!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Geometric Currency Sculptures by Kristi Malakoff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

[artwork via\u00a0Colossal<\/a>] <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I wrote that David Graeber’s book opens your eyes, that was not just a figure of speech. First, consider this: In recent weeks, Theodoros Mavridis has bought fresh eggs, tsipourou (the local brandy: beware), fruit, olives, olive oil, jam, and soap. He has also had some legal advice, and enjoyed the services of an accountant to help fill in his tax return. None of it has cost him a euro, because he had previously done a spot of electrical work \u2013 repairing a TV, sorting out a dodgy light \u2013 for some of the 800-odd members of a fast-growing exchange network in the port town of Volos, midway between Athens and Thessaloniki. In return for his expert labour, Mavridis received a number of Local Alternative Units (known as tems in Greek) in his online network account. In return for the eggs, olive oil, tax advice and the rest, he transferred tems into other people’s accounts. Fascinating, but also completely understandable according to a token theory of money. Whether you call it euro, drahma, or tems doesn’t really matter. It is just a unit of exchange. For the\u00a0community within which it functions, it doesn’t need\u00a0the backing of\u00a0the state (or a central bank) or a gold\u00a0standard. Of course, the limitation is that the system can only function within a relatively small community: “It’s also a way of showing practical solidarity \u2013 of building relationships.” This quote directly links to Graeber’s argument about the intimate association between debt and community: the tems…<\/p>\n

Continue readingDebt and the nature of money<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[159,165,168,416,457,651],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g3hj-6H","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":350,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=350","url_meta":{"origin":415,"position":0},"title":"David Graeber's 'Debt' will shake your world","date":"March 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"David Graeber's 'Debt: The First 5,000 Year' is easily the most thought-provoking, insightful, erudite and provocative book I have read over the last few years. While you can disagree with particular arguments or resist certain conclusions, it will shake your most fundamental assumptions about social life. After reading the book,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropology"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":436,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=436","url_meta":{"origin":415,"position":1},"title":"Models in Political Science","date":"April 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Inside Higher Ed has a good interview with David Primo and Kevin Clarke on their new book A Model Discipline: Political Science and the Logic of Representations.\u00a0 The book and the interview criticize the hypothetico-deductive tradition in social science: The actual research was prompted by a student who asked, \"Why\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Observational studies"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":598,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=598","url_meta":{"origin":415,"position":2},"title":"The International Journal of Indexing","date":"November 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This just needs to be re-posted [from Kottke]: [F]or the\u00a0Society of Indexers, book indices are a topic that holds endless fascination. And I do mean endless. The Prime Minister of England\u00a0wrote to the Society of Indexers\u00a0at the society's founding back in\u00a0freaking 1958. \"I can scarcely conceal from you the fact\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academic publishing"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":427,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=427","url_meta":{"origin":415,"position":3},"title":"Hyperlinks","date":"April 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"How much money do university professors around the world get The Netherlands is doing OK which should make me happy Sperm do calculus\u00a0And so should you Common-pool resources management in Hawai\u00a0Would love to go for a field study A discussion of political science efforts to predict US presidential elections\u00a0Could be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hyperlinks"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/stamen-map.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":948,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=948","url_meta":{"origin":415,"position":4},"title":"Books on data visualization","date":"November 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a compilation of new and classic books on data visualization: \u00a0 Scott Murray (2017)\u00a0Interactive Data Visualization for the Web\u00a0[amazon asin=1491921285&template=add to cart] Elijah Meeks (2017)\u00a0D3.Js in Action: Data Visualization with JavaScript\u00a0[amazon asin=1617294489&template=add to cart] Alberto Cairo (2016)\u00a0The Truthful Art: Data, Charts, and Maps for Communication\u00a0[amazon asin=0321934075&template=add to cart]\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Data visualization"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=57","url_meta":{"origin":415,"position":5},"title":"Inspiring scientific concepts","date":"October 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"EDGE asks 159 selected intellectuals What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit? You are welcome to read the individual contributions which range from a paragraph to a short essay here. Many of the entries are truly inspiring but I see little synergy of bringing 159 of them together. Like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Causality"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/2kotK9FNEYU\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}