<story><title>How Debt Has Defined Human History</title><url>http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/08/06/how-debt-has-defined-human-history/</url><text></text></story><parent_chain><item><author>chrismealy</author><text>Debt is the same as savings. &quot;How Savings Has Defined Human History&quot; somehow doesn&apos;t get people worked up.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jhancock</author><text>I started reading Graeber&apos;s book [1] 3 days ago.  I&apos;m only about 1/3 into it.  The author is an anthropologist and tells his story from this perspective.  So far, If I understand correctly what I&apos;m reading, I think the author would not agree that &apos;savings&apos; is the opposite of &apos;debt&apos;.  I also don&apos;t see the author as trying to get the reader worked up.  Its a very interesting and though provoking read thus far.&lt;p&gt;[1] - &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.com/Debt-First-5-000-Years/dp/1933633867&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.amazon.com/Debt-First-5-000-Years/dp/1933633867&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>How Debt Has Defined Human History</title><url>http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/08/06/how-debt-has-defined-human-history/</url><text></text></story><parent_chain><item><author>chrismealy</author><text>Debt is the same as savings. &quot;How Savings Has Defined Human History&quot; somehow doesn&apos;t get people worked up.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>anonymoushn</author><text>Are you sure?  I&apos;m fairly certain that if I accumulate savings in the form of some non-debt-backed currency and keep it buried in a box it won&apos;t be the same as debt.&lt;p&gt;If we still want to regard that as debt, I could instead buy commodities and keep them in a warehouse, but I think there would be some temptation to say that &quot;they are not savings because they are not currency.&quot;</text></comment>