“It is the secret scandal of capitalism that at no point has it been organized primarily around free labor.”

— David Graeber

Source: Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), Chapter Eleven, "Age of the Great Capitalist Empires", p. 350

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It is the secret scandal of capitalism that at no point has it been organized primarily around free labor." by David Graeber?

David Graeber 55

American anthropologist and anarchist 1961

Related quotes

“Labor in this country is independent and proud. It has not to ask the patronage of capital, but capital solicits the aid of labor.”

Daniel Webster (1782–1852) Leading American senator and statesman. January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852. Served as the Secretary of Sta…

Speech (2 April 1824); reported in Edward Everett, ed., The Works of Daniel Webster (1851), volume iii, page 141

“The free market tide has now receded. In its place has come state capitalism, a system in which the state functions as the leading economic actor and uses markets primarily for political gain.”

Ian Bremmer (1969) American political scientist

"State Capitalism Comes of Age," http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/64948/ian-bremmer/state-capitalism-comes-of-age Foreign Affairs (May/June 2009).

“Ricardo's "science" was founded on the principle that capital is more or less immobile and labor highly mobile. We are enjoined today to worship the consequences of Ricardo's science, despite the fact that the assumptions on which they are based have been reversed: capital is highly mobile, and labor virtually immobile -- libertarian conservatives lead the way in rejecting Adam Smith's principle that "free circulation of labor" is a cornerstone of free trade, in keeping with their contempt for markets”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

except for the weak
Z Magazine, February 1995 http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199505--.htm.
Quotes 1990s, 1995-1999

“Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Source: 1860s, First State of the Union address (1861)
Context: Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation.