“Once upon a time, the grownups used to go far away every day to earn money, for without money you did not have a house or food or clothes. As time passed, the grownups went away for longer and longer and the money they brought home was less and less until finally there was no money left. Where did it all go? Money wasn’t a thing like clothes or parsnips. Money was a promise. And too many people broke that promise so people did not believe in money anymore. The grownups everywhere realized they had been cheated but even the cheats lost out when no one wanted to plough the field or teach the class or even stop the bad men.” MoneyPromise Book:If Then Source: If Then
“We were tolerated because our vanities could be manipulated so that we took on debt. Vainly we aspired to better ourselves and thereby society. But meritocracy was only for the poor. In reality, for all our high ideals, we were merely pretexts for debt; debt was our contribution, debt was how we created wealth. Our houses were debt. Our educations were debt. Our health was debt. Our trinkets, debt.” MoneyDebtVanities Book:If Then Source: If Then