…the basic story, it goes back to Adam Smith, this guy who made up this story. Some people say it goes back to Aristotle. It's funny just reading. But Adam Smith, he's trying to imagine Native Americans sitting around, saying, OK, I'll tell you what. I'll…

…had largely disappeared, and now we have wage slavery again. which is really just a variation of the same thing. If Aristotle were here, I always say, he would definitely think that most Americans are slaves, because in the ancient world, the distinction…

…largely disappeared, and now we have wage slavery again. which is really just a variation of the same thing. You know, if Aristotle were here, I always say he would definitely think that most Americans are slaves, you know, because in the ancient world,…

…had largely disappeared, and now we have wage slavery. which is really just a variation of the same thing. You know, if Aristotle were here, I always say he would definitely think that most Americans are slaves, you know, because in the ancient world, the…

…enslave the rest of the population. This is the great social crisis of antiquity. If you go back to people like Aristotle, Hammurabi, Confucius, when they imagine the great social crisis, weaponized debt was what they had in mind. This tiny percentage of…

…Eventually, they'd have to sell members of their family or even themselves into slavery. And the way I always put it, if Aristotle were alive today, he would probably see the distinction between being so deeply in debt that you have to sell yourself to…

…most notably in the classical world. Greek and Roman sources document aristocrats who felt that work was only fit for slaves. Indeed, Aristotle insisted that work was in fact harmful because it took up too much of one's time, time that would be better…

…pretty much what we are experiencing right now. And this is true whether it's Confucian thinkers in the Middle Ages or Aristotle or people like that. A tiny percentage of the population enslaves everybody else. They're trapped in these terrible debt traps…

…of. They're forced to sell members of their family into slavery or themselves into slavery. They always say if Aristotle were magically transported to contemporary America, he would probably find the distinction between an indebted householder selling himself…

…witnesses. If the two surfaces agree, then everyone knows that the agreement between the contracting parties exists as well. This is why Aristotle saw it as a fit metaphor for words. Word A corresponds to concept B because there is a tacit agreement that…

…working extra jobs, working in jobs they would otherwise never want to be in. In order to pay back those debts, if Aristotle were sort of magically whisked into the present, he would probably not take the distinction between renting yourself out to someone…

…but consumer debts wiped out. The Jubilee was another version of the same thing. The point I always make is that if Aristotle were somehow put in a time machine and magically transported to here, he would probably think that the distinction between selling…

…to basically enslave everybody else? This is kind of the big social problem throughout antiquity. If you're Confucian, if you're Aristotle, when you're imagining the worst thing that could possibly happen, society falls apart, it's the debt trap. People start…

…It's like a nightmare scenario. This is what we always want to prevent, and that's why we have all these laws. If Aristotle were here today, he would probably think that the distinction between being so indebted that you are selling yourself to work for…