Debt has historically served to capture and fix people within political bonds

Evidence

Historically, capturing and fixing dependents through the mechanism of debt has always been a central aspect of both the production of people and the constitution of the political bond. Such bonds were crucial in determining the value of persons and gauging their value and utility. When their value and utility were not proven, they could be disposed of as slaves, pawns, or clients. — Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics, 133

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines debt not as mere economic exchange but as a mechanism for producing persons and constituting political membership, with disposal as the sanction for failed value.
• XREF: Connects to the debt-and-bondage theme in Things Fall Apart and to the concept of debt as social control in the Scaffolding vocabulary. — connects to: The state frames citizens’ lives as a debt it can call in for sacrifice. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 562; Colonies took on debt at punitive interest rates and faced enforced compensation — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 21; Ancient caste law encoded differential interest rates legitimizing debt bondage (+5 more)

Related

• Debt operates as a capture of the debtor’s future time. (similarity 0.81)
• Radical debt politics requires expanding debt into a concept of shared social bonds. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The state frames citizens’ lives as a debt it can call in for sacrifice. #expands (0.85) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 562
• Colonies took on debt at punitive interest rates and faced enforced compensation #exemplifies (0.80) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 21
• Obligation-credit structures concentrate power in hierarchical and stratified settings. #corroborates (0.80) — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 92
• Ancient caste law encoded differential interest rates legitimizing debt bondage #exemplifies (0.75)