With the invention of money in the seventh century before Christ, people became free, like Rembrandt, to borrow at interest and go into debt. In ancient Athens they went into slavery when they coukd not repay. Their wives and children went with them. Small farms failed. The city split into creditors and debtors, rich and poor. With profit the motive, people were expendable, the welfare of the society secondary. Who needed a working class when slaves were so plentiful? Why bother producing what could be imported more cheaply? Why ever sell for less than the traffic would bear? A hundred years before Pericles, wealthy landowners in Athens were shipping their own grain outside the city to better markets while people inside the city went hungry. -Joseph Heller, Picture This
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 23:48:46 +0000
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