Justin Bruin

Daymon Smith

Anthropology 1010

2 May 2018

Eportfolio Assignment

The main theme of Chapter 12 of David Graebers’ “Debt: The first 5,000 years”

is that American culture has allowed themselves to be controlled by debt, and that they

need to take back control before the control it has over everyone becomes even greater.

The beginning of the chapter discusses Richard Nixon’s decision to disallow conversion

of foreign held U.S. dollars into Gold. In addition, Graeber discusses the effects of this

decision, and why Nixon chose to implement this policy. Graeber goes into great detail to

discuss the effects this decision had on the economy. He talks about how the value of the

dollar plummeted, and inflation became increasingly persistent. In addition, the value of

gold reserves skyrocketed. Graeber cites historians as saying Nixon likely had no choice

in the matter. The costs of the Vietnam war were becoming too much, and so Nixon

chose to “float the dollar.” Graeber also points out that modern money as a whole is

based on government debt. However, Graeber also makes it clear that Nixon’s decision

had a huge impact on the world, regardless of his intent. It entered the world into a “new

financial history,” as Graeber describes it.

Graeber claims that we have all accepted that the market is “self-regulating,” and

we can’t really control the rise and fall of prices. He notes that the banking system in

America is incredibly difficult to understand fully, and that this is done on purpose. He

quotes Henry Ford, who says, “…” Graeber also goes in depth about how war correlates
with debt. In addition, Graeber talks about the societal view of debt, and his own opinion

on the cause of debt. In general, Graeber seems to express his disgust with how debt is

handled and viewed in our society. He brings up how easy it is for someone with power

to get out of a debt, while those without power are consumed with debt for their entire

life. Graeber’s last parts of the chapter talk about how we need a “biblical jubilee” of

some kind to free everyone from this mess that debt has put everyone in, and that that

debt is just a “perversion of a promise.” Graeber ends the chapter with the statement, “…

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.”

Based on my own Ethnological experiences, I cannot help but agree with the

arguments presented by Graeber in chapter 12. Graeber’s main argument is that the

general society of the U.S. should take back control over the way debt is handled in this

country. He feels that debt controls us, and that we have simply accepted this as part of

life. I have noticed this myself through my interactions growing up in this culture all my

life. I feel that the words that describe my culture best are ignorant, idealistic, and

prideful. It is almost expected of one to go into debt to receive proper education, a home

to live in, or a car to drive in. U.S. Culture normalizes debt as a necessary part of life.

America is a “free country” and a “free market”, according to many politicians. Donald

Trump, the man representing our country, loves to talk about how great America is

because it’s a “land of opportunity.” Yet, this “land of opportunity” cripples someone

financially and mentally if they want a basic human need. Trump also loves to talk about

how the military is so inspiring and great. The military budget was almost 600 Billion

dollars in 2015, and they recently asked for an increase.

 There are countless examples of large corporations being able to get away with

any amount of debt because of their influence. America, the culture I live in, loves to

continually idealize these great aspects of our country, and look away from the clear

contradictions of these ideals. The “American dream” is the ability to achieve any level

of success you want depending on the effort you put in. My culture takes pride in this

dream, but there are again clear cases of this ideal being contradicted. As previously

mentioned, basic human needs are nearly impossible to get without going into debt.

These levels of debt already severely hamper a person’s chances at finding “success.”

We refuse to acknowledge these issues in our culture most of the time, and

anyone that actually does acknowledge them realizes they hold no power. My culture has

allowed itself to be controlled by debt, and it has gotten to the point where a fight for

change is becoming exceedingly difficult because of the sheer amount of power large

corporations have gained for us. One could argue that we should just elect better people

to make this change happen, but politicians are constantly being bribed by corporations to

vote in favor of them. In addition, many of the politicians elected have ties to large

corporations, such as the secretary of the treasury being a former CEO of Goldman

Sachs. I feel that my own ethnological experiences with my culture match what Graeber

writes about in chapter 12 to a shockingly accurate degree.

Chapter 15 of “Cultural Anthropology Eleventh Edition,” our textbook, further

supports these claims about my culture. The chapter starts off by describing the average

U.S. family. The attributes of this family seem nice, such as everyone being healthy and

having three meals each day. However, there are many problems with this “average”

family despite the illusion of a perfectly happy life. The textbook lists problems such as
“high costs for college education” “and “debt.” These are exactly the same issues I feel

are a large part of American culture today. In addition, the book states, “… almost all of

the benefits of economic growth over the last 20 years have gone to people far wealthier

than them.” This coincides with my point that we have no power over large corporations

and wealthy individuals, along with Graeber’s point that most Americans do not have

control over the market.

The book also comments on the effects of large corporations on wealthy nation

economies, or multinational corporations to be specific. It says, “Wealthy nations found

that some MNC’s might be too big to fail and were forced.” This means that a company

can get away with making such awful financial decisions if it is large and powerful

enough. As previously mentioned, an example of this is with Goldman Sachs and the

secretary of the U.S. treasury. The secretary was a former CEO of Goldman Sachs, and

bailed out the company from bankruptcy with money from the treasury. This money

came from American tax dollars. The American people essentially paid to bail out a

company for its own poor financial decisions. In addition, Goldman Sachs got into

financial trouble because of their shady practices, and the punishment they received was

minimal compared to the money they got from the treasury. This was the most troubling

thing I learned in Anthropology 1010, but it solidified my opinion that my culture has

allowed itself to be controlled by large corporations, arrogance, and most of all debt. I

feel that the excerpts from David Graeber and the textbook only stand to solidify my

stance on my culture, the American culture.