Graeber Chapter 12

Graeber's final chapter was probably one of the most interesting to me, as he brings his theories full circle into modern day circumstances. I think that his ideas about US militarism, the spread of the dollar, and the siphoning of resources from the poorer areas of the world to the US are more relevant than perhaps most Americans would like to believe. It certainly is not hard to see the United States as a country that acts like a world empire. We spend more money on our military than the next 8 countries combined, we push for our political and economic ideas to be spread around the world, and have, as Graeber notes, more than 800 military bases around the world. Perhaps even more significant, as it relates to debt, is the fact that the countries with military occupation tend to buy the most US treasury bonds. These factors seem oddly reminiscent of some of the characteristics of the Axial and Colonial Age, particularly as they relate to militarization. Additionally, the United States is hugely in debt, no doubt significantly because of the excessive spending on military. What is different from the Axial and Colonial Ages is that our money does not come from slave mined silver and gold. This is where the analysis becomes a little more tricky for me, although I think that some of the answers can be found where Graeber explains how while the US is not held accountable for its debts, poorer countries are and at serious interest rates. This is something that I would be interested in learning more about, as well as, the IMF's role in it. It will be interesting it see how and when the world will change once the US no longer wields the economic and militaristic upper hand.