This article is about David Graeber's last work (done with his, still surviving, co-author David Wengrow). Graeber's death hit me particularly hard for the same reasons this author mentioned. He...
This article is about David Graeber's last work (done with his, still surviving, co-author David Wengrow). Graeber's death hit me particularly hard for the same reasons this author mentioned. He was legitimately a brilliant thinker and intellectual and his accounts of the story of humanity (and particularly human economics) have had profound impacts on how I think about the world and how it came to be. Most here probably know him best by his article (and subsequent book) On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs.
A fine example from the Nib. When I was renting, I felt free. Rent was a kind of abstract "I just need to pay this to live here." kind of thing. I moved quite regularly. To escape an untreated...
When I was renting, I felt free. Rent was a kind of abstract "I just need to pay this to live here." kind of thing. I moved quite regularly.
To escape an untreated mold problem. To avoid a 3-floor walk up and microscopic kitchen. To move to a better-paying job in the city to pay my debts (many of which I had ignored to this point and passed statute od limitations).
To get out of a dense apartment to one with a washer/dryer to avoid laundromat costs. And finally to a home to raise a family, because getting enough bedrooms it was cheaper to buy a house than to rent, even with a $200 mortgage insurance, now that I had scrapped together enough money for a 10% down payment...over a decade into the workforce.
Now? Debt-free except for a mortgage? I feel more trapped than ever. Because that monthly payment is for 30 years. And now with kids, uprooting means taking them from their friends. But if I lose my job in an economic downturn, I don't have as many options to tighten the belt until I get a new one. And I'll probably need to take on more debt.
That cartoon is... cartoonish. It seems like the freedom some people get from renting comes from other people taking responsibility for buildings and (sometimes) for paying mortgages, for better...
That cartoon is... cartoonish.
It seems like the freedom some people get from renting comes from other people taking responsibility for buildings and (sometimes) for paying mortgages, for better or worse.
I don't think that's it, at least not for me. Not being beholden to a landlord's whims, including shoddy and delayed problems with the residence, is also quite liberating. More than anything, it's...
I don't think that's it, at least not for me. Not being beholden to a landlord's whims, including shoddy and delayed problems with the residence, is also quite liberating.
More than anything, it's that a rental space isn't really something you can personalize, and that the obligations involved are somewhat masked behind the veneer of 'temporary' housing. Skipping rent or mortgage has same end result.
Losing your home hurts more, so you feel even more obligated to not rock the boat. Not engaging in legally risky activities like protesting.
If you lose your job, it's more likely you'll have to up and move than being able to find one locally. Lack of job security across the board doesn't help.
De-commodifying the housing market should help. Making it easier to get mortgages, share ownership, divest ownership should help. Raising wages so average homeowners can afford general contractors to help manage maintainence. Increasing job security so uprooting lives is less of a neccessity.
Debt (and rent) is only a small part of the larger picture of systemic problems in the USA.
I started reading a sample from Amazon, and so far it seems that Graeber is using horrific debt-related injustices as an excuse for sloppy thinking. Like, for example, when discussing US debt held...
I started reading a sample from Amazon, and so far it seems that Graeber is using horrific debt-related injustices as an excuse for sloppy thinking.
Like, for example, when discussing US debt held by other countries:
So what is the status of all this money continually being funneled into the US Treasury […] one could easily make the case that the only reason it insists on treating these payments as “loans” and not as “tribute” is precisely to deny the reality of what’s going on.
This is backwards. I don’t know what “money continually being funneled into the US Treasury” he’s talking about? The payment will go the other way. A US bond held by another country is an asset for them because eventually the US government pays them money. Treasury bonds are wealth.
You might ask how other countries got wealthy, and often it’s by selling things to the US and not insisting on getting anything material in return as offsetting exports. So if anything, all the Chinese products being shipped to the US might be “tribute,” I guess, but this is a dubious metaphor.
It’s an interesting subject and maybe the history is better, but he comes across as an untrustworthy writer.
This article is about David Graeber's last work (done with his, still surviving, co-author David Wengrow). Graeber's death hit me particularly hard for the same reasons this author mentioned. He was legitimately a brilliant thinker and intellectual and his accounts of the story of humanity (and particularly human economics) have had profound impacts on how I think about the world and how it came to be. Most here probably know him best by his article (and subsequent book) On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs.
It seems this book isn’t out yet, in the usual, frustrating way that new books are publicized. Which of his previous books do you like the best?
I’d recommend Debt: The First 5,000 Years. I believe the Nib also has the book condensed into comic form as well.
A fine example from the Nib.
When I was renting, I felt free. Rent was a kind of abstract "I just need to pay this to live here." kind of thing. I moved quite regularly.
To escape an untreated mold problem. To avoid a 3-floor walk up and microscopic kitchen. To move to a better-paying job in the city to pay my debts (many of which I had ignored to this point and passed statute od limitations).
To get out of a dense apartment to one with a washer/dryer to avoid laundromat costs. And finally to a home to raise a family, because getting enough bedrooms it was cheaper to buy a house than to rent, even with a $200 mortgage insurance, now that I had scrapped together enough money for a 10% down payment...over a decade into the workforce.
Now? Debt-free except for a mortgage? I feel more trapped than ever. Because that monthly payment is for 30 years. And now with kids, uprooting means taking them from their friends. But if I lose my job in an economic downturn, I don't have as many options to tighten the belt until I get a new one. And I'll probably need to take on more debt.
That cartoon is... cartoonish.
It seems like the freedom some people get from renting comes from other people taking responsibility for buildings and (sometimes) for paying mortgages, for better or worse.
I don't think that's it, at least not for me. Not being beholden to a landlord's whims, including shoddy and delayed problems with the residence, is also quite liberating.
More than anything, it's that a rental space isn't really something you can personalize, and that the obligations involved are somewhat masked behind the veneer of 'temporary' housing. Skipping rent or mortgage has same end result.
Losing your home hurts more, so you feel even more obligated to not rock the boat. Not engaging in legally risky activities like protesting.
If you lose your job, it's more likely you'll have to up and move than being able to find one locally. Lack of job security across the board doesn't help.
De-commodifying the housing market should help. Making it easier to get mortgages, share ownership, divest ownership should help. Raising wages so average homeowners can afford general contractors to help manage maintainence. Increasing job security so uprooting lives is less of a neccessity.
Debt (and rent) is only a small part of the larger picture of systemic problems in the USA.
I started reading a sample from Amazon, and so far it seems that Graeber is using horrific debt-related injustices as an excuse for sloppy thinking.
Like, for example, when discussing US debt held by other countries:
This is backwards. I don’t know what “money continually being funneled into the US Treasury” he’s talking about? The payment will go the other way. A US bond held by another country is an asset for them because eventually the US government pays them money. Treasury bonds are wealth.
You might ask how other countries got wealthy, and often it’s by selling things to the US and not insisting on getting anything material in return as offsetting exports. So if anything, all the Chinese products being shipped to the US might be “tribute,” I guess, but this is a dubious metaphor.
It’s an interesting subject and maybe the history is better, but he comes across as an untrustworthy writer.