5 Takeaways from “Debt: The First 5,000 Years”

“Debt: The First 5,000 Years” by David Graeber is a generational must-read book for anyone serious about learning the truth about money.

This book has changed my view on debt, relationships, money, monetary policy, wars, and capitalism. It is a massive book, clocking in at over 700 pages.

However, it is worth the read. It took me two months to power through the book. Here are some of the new feelings I have after reading the book.

1) We are meant to be in debt. Debt doesn’t always have to be monetary or financial. Sometimes we owe our parents or ancestors.

2) The credit cycle always plays out the same. Once people have access to interest-bearing loans, society slowly becomes rich and poor, masters and slaves.

3) Sometimes, the leaders enact a debt jubilee that forgives all debts and returns enslaved people and children to their homes. However, the cycle will eventually repeat.

4) In some societies, interest-bearing loans are the devil, and people who leverage them are considered evil. However, some form of gamesmanship, trade-off, barter, or gifts always occurs between two individuals. Nothing is free.

5) Markets and society are two different entities. However, for markets to function, the currency needs to have value. Society (politicians, scholars) keeps the value of money by enforcing policy and maintaining stores of wealth.

Everything that the US is facing today has already taken place before. We are in a period where most people are debt peons (slaves). We work for money to the owners of our interest-bearing loans (mortgages, credit cards, student loans).

Eventually, there will be an uprising or a debt reset. However, capitalists created markets for a reason. Markets are there to ensure people get into debt.

Most people will go into debt, especially when debt is not frowned upon. Debt is our birthright, and most people will never get away from debt.

When I got out of debt, I felt the world had new colors I had never seen. This book explains that I was never meant to escape the nature-order of things; I was supposed to stay in debt.

If no one had debts (monetary or otherwise), the world would cease to function. Everything revolves around debt, ownership, or hierarchy—without understanding debt, you will not understand freedom.

This book is a must-read if you are serious about seeking a path to financial freedom. You have to understand the origins of debt. 

Even when you free yourself from debt, it will try to bring you back. It is simply the way of things. We want what we want, and we want it now. Welcome to debt. Good Luck!

This link is to a physical product. The link above is to the digital book. Sorry. I get no credit for digital product links.

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