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David Graeber Biography

David Rolfe Graeber (/ˈɡreɪbər/; born 12 February 1961) is an American anthropologist and anarchist activist, perhaps best known for his 2011 volume Debt: The First 5000 Years. He is professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics.

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David Graeber Quotes

Capitalism is like this fractal thing where anything that contains an element of capitalism anywhere inside it is just something that turns into capitalism. It is an incredibly defeatist attitude. If you choose to look at reality that way, I suppose you can, but you have to do enormous violence to reality to do so consistently.

Attitude, Contains, Fractal, Looks, Reality, Suppose

States created markets. Markets require states. Neither could continue without the other, at least, in anything like the forms we would recognize today.

Form, Like, Markets, Recognize, States, Today

The fascinating thing about standard economic stories is exactly that: they assume that everybody wants that kind of closure. That all human relations are forms of exchange, because if everything is an exchange then it's true that we're both equals. We walk up, I give you something, you give me something, and we walk away. Or I give you something, you don't give me something right now, and you owe me. So if we have any ongoing relationships at all, it's because somebody is in debt.

Equals, Giving, Ongoing, Relationships, Stories, Walk

Meanwhile, the U. S. debt remains, as it has been since 1790, a war debt; the United States continues to spend more on its military than do all other nations on earth put together, and military expenditures are not only the basis of the government's industrial policy; they also take up such a huge proportion of the budget that by many estimations, were it not for them, the United States would not run a deficit at all.

Earth, Military, Run, Running, War

We are usually told that democracy originated in ancient Athens—like science, or philosophy, it was a Greek invention. It’s never entirely clear what this is supposed to mean. Are we supposed to believe that before the Athenians, it never really occurred to anyone, anywhere, to gather all the members of their community in order to make joint decisions in a way that gave everyone equal say?

Believe, Everyone, Make, Mean, Philosophy

If you look at history, there seems to be a regular pattern: the country with the most powerful military also happens to be the one with the world trade currency. That gives them an enormous economic advantage, which causes goods to flow into their country.

Country, Enormous, Military, Powerful

Money has always been a particular problem for revolutionaries and anti-capitalists. What will money look like 'after the revolution'? How will it function? Will it exist at all? It's hard to answer the question if you don't know what money actually is. Proposing to eliminate it entirely seems utopian and naive.

Answers, Entirely, Function, Looks, Particular, Revolution

Adam Smith actually took all his best ideas and lines from sources from medieval Persia. But one thing he doesn't take is the underlying assumption they have that the basis of a market is mutual aid.

Assumption, Basis, Ideas, Lines, Smith, Take

It affects every aspect of our lives, is often said to be the root of all evil, and the analysis of the world that it makes possible - what we call 'the economy' - is so important to us that economists have become the high priests of our society. Yet, oddly, there is absolutely no consensus among economists about what money really is.

Consensus, Evil, Important, Oddly, Priests, Roots

What we're already doing is communism. The first step we have to make is to realize that we're already closer to it than we think.

Already, Firsts, Make, Step, Steps, Thinking

The notion that a society could be regulated entirely by market forces is a utopian fantasy: an impossible dream generated by imagining what the world would be like if everyone's behavior was utterly consistent with some abstract moral ideal-in this case, economic theories that assume all human action is based on calculating, systematic, (but scrupulously law-abiding), greed.

Dream, Greed, Imagining, Law, Like

Even in the most market-obsessed society, we're still spending half of our time on something other than just getting cash.

Cash, Half, Obsessed, Spending

It is assumed in many parts of the world that democracy is a group of people facing a certain problem, who come together to solve it in a way where everyone has an equal say.

Come, Democracy, Equal, People, Say, Together

The working poor are the people suffering out subprime mortgages and fatal loans and more and more of our money - you know, capitalism is operated by extracting money, not so much directly being paid.

Extracting, Know, Mortgage, Paid, People, Suffering

I would like, then, to end by putting in a good word for the non-industrious poor. At least they aren’t hurting anyone. Insofar as the time they are taking time off from work is being spent with friends and family, enjoying and caring for those they love, they’re probably improving the world more than we acknowledge.

Caring, Enjoying, Family And Friends, Hurt, Like, Spent

In the largest scheme of things, just as no one has the right to tell us our true value, no one has the right to tell us what we truly owe.

Right, Schemes, Tell, True, True Value, Values

All societies are based on a sort of minimum level of communism. Otherwise, you couldn't have any social relations at all.

Communism, Level, Levels, Social, Societies, Sort

You can't have cutthroat competition when there's no one stopping you from actually cutting each other's throats. In order to build up trust we also have to think about each other's needs and it creates an entirely different dynamic.

Cutting, Different, Entirely, Order, Think, Thinking

I think if the general exodus that seems to be going on occurs it's going to be a disaster,.

Disaster, Exodus, Occurs, Think, Thinking

Now, we're used to thinking of communism as being once-upon-a-time-all-things-were-owned-in-common, maybe-someday-this-will-come-again. And people agree that there is a sort of epic narrative going on here. I think we should just throw this narrative out, it's irrelevant anyway, and who cares who owns things? I don't. You know, we all own the White House. So what? I still can't go in, right?

Epic, People, Thinking, White

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David Graeber Biography

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