Long before our species developed into the knowledgeable powerhouse it is today, before we developed sophisticated social structures, complex rules of government and laws with which to enforce those structures, we were just some dudes trying to score our next meal. Maybe we would even get a new addition to our wardrobe if the fur from that kill was in good shape. We probably didn’t look much further ahead than any given task we were currently pursuing.
Then, on a Tuesday, at 3:12pm Grog time, an ancestor caught another fish. Not the fresh red meat he was craving, but yet another fish. He had dined on fish for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for months. He was growing to hate fish, but he was hungry.
Then, he spots his neighbor Klug. Klug had meat, like lots of it. But Klug was a big dude. He wanted Klugs’ meat but knew Klug could pulverize him if he tried to just take it. He looked at the big pile of fish he had, wishing it could all be meat like Klug had. Fish. Meat. Fish. Meat. Eureka! He would give Klug his fish and in exchange he would get Klugs meat!
He beamed with pride, marveling at his own genius as he gathered his fish and walked over to Klugs’ place. When he arrived he came right up to Klug and dropped his pile of fish at his feet. Then he gestured towards Klugs meat and grunted exactly 4 times. (This was the equivalent of a liability waiver, standard boilerplate at the time). He could hardly wait to get some of that red meat and was starting to drool. As he gazed at Klugs meat pile, he didn’t notice Klug reach down and pick up a big, heavy club. He did see a brief blur of movement just before seeing flashes of light just before everything went black.
He woke up some amount of time later, in pain, laying in a pool of his own blood. No meat. No fish. He had been robbed and beaten. He saw Klug later and Klug just laughed and continued munching on what was left of his fish.
And thus, modern banking was born. We all participate in this remarkably accepted form of organized servitude. Where the poorer you are, the more you have to pay. If you barely get by, you pay ridiculously high interest rates on everything that you borrow, while the billionaire can finance anything he wants for such low rates that it is virtually free. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. Aren’t we just so advanced?
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