David Graeber (1) (1961–2020)

Highlighted quotes from my reading:

"Our actions are caught up in relations of caring. But most caring relations require we leave the world more or less as we found it. In the same way that teenage idealists regularly abandon their dreams of creating a better world and come to accept the compromises of adult life at precisely the moment they marry and have children, caring for others, especially over the long term, requires maintaining a world that's relatively predictable as the grounds on which the caring can take place. One cannot save to ensure a college education for one's children unless one is sure in twenty years there will still be colleges-or for that matter, money. And that, in turn, means that love for others-people, animals, landscapes-regularly requires the maintenance of institutional structures one might otherwise despise."

"Leslie told me of studies that demonstrate that any system of means testing, no matter how it's framed, will necessarily mean at least 20 percent of those who legitimately qualify for benefits give up and don't apply... 60 percent of those eligible for unemployment benefits in the United Kingdom don't get them."

"Thousands of people are maintained on comfortable salaries in air-conditioned offices simply to ensure that poor people continue to feel bad about themselves."

… (mere)