Debt: The First 5,000 Years | David Graeber | Talks at Google

Caption notes

In this talk about Debt: The First 5,000 Years, David Graeber asks why repaying debts often serves as a measure of moral obligation. He treats debt as a promise that can be precisely quantified, and uses gift exchange to show how leaving a balance unsettled can sustain a relationship. He also draws on early systems of recording credit to challenge the origin story in which barter gives way to money and credit comes last. In the final Q&A, he returns to family life and asks why people describe what they owe their parents as a debt even when they do not understand care as an exchange of equivalents.