<bq author="David Graeber" source="Debt: the First 5,000 Years" href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1612194192/counterpunchmaga">The criminalization of debt, then, was the criminalization of the very basis of human society. It cannot be overemphasized that in a small community, everyone normally was both a lender and borrower. One can only imagine the tensions and temptations that must have existed in a community—and communities, much though they are based on love, in fact because they are based on love, will always also be full of hatred, rivalry and passion—<b>when it became clear that with sufficiently clever scheming, manipulation, and perhaps a bit of strategic bribery, they could arrange to have almost anyone they hated imprisoned or even hanged.</b> (Emphasis added.)</bq>