Status Updates From Debt: The First 5,000 Years

To understand the history of capitalism, however, we have to begin by realizing that the picture we have in our heads, of workers who dutifully punch the clock at 8:00 a.m. and receive regular remuneration every Friday, on the basis of a contract that either party is free to break off, began as a utopian vision and has never, at any point, been the main way of organizing production for the market, ever, anywhere.