0:02 hello again everybody this is john glaser
0:03 glaser
0:07 in medieval european times
0:10 um the um
0:13 feudal societies that existed at that time
0:14 time
0:17 um were a network of reciprocal obligations
0:18 obligations
0:21 that people had to to each other and
0:22 those obligations
0:26 uh defined um uh our duties and our standing
0:27 standing
0:30 and our role um in common
0:33 life in in the shared world of the
0:35 society that we lived in
0:38 who you were and where you were born and
0:40 the circumstances of your life
0:42 determined all that for you wasn't any
0:44 you know sort of upward
0:47 mobility from being a peasant and uh
0:48 getting to be
0:51 you know a noble person
0:54 although there was a path from um being
0:56 a peasant to becoming
0:58 part of the clergy but at any rate it's
1:00 important to realize that
1:02 there are alternative ways of organizing
1:03 social life
1:06 um and in in these days um and during
1:08 medieval europe
1:11 land was the most important thing the
1:19 proclaimed sovereignty over the land and
1:22 in exchange for services
1:25 granted land to the nobility
1:28 and the nobility in exchange for services
1:29 services
1:32 um got the uh peasants and the
1:35 uh and the serfs to to actually work the
1:36 land and
1:40 and uh populate you know the armies and
1:43 and fight those wars and um you know be the
1:43 the
1:46 the foot soldiers in both uh production
1:49 as well as military adventurism but at
1:50 any rate
1:52 land rather than money was the
1:54 organizing principle
1:57 and it's interesting to note the history
1:58 of money
2:01 at this time is a fascinating subject
2:05 um from one point of view
2:08 um money was um
2:11 modern money was created and utilized
2:14 in order for the nobility to
2:18 privatize the costs of
2:21 war um war
2:24 was the main game of uh the nobility
2:28 and the quest for domination um
2:31 uh and power um you know came at a
2:35 at a bloody cost and the um
2:45 important than as it was as it is now
2:48 but creating a money a money system
2:53 and taxation was used so that people had
2:56 had the obligation to pay taxes
2:59 um upward in the hierarchy that means
3:00 that they had to have
3:03 uh cash they had to have money um and that
3:04 that
3:07 need for money was
3:10 only a need when
3:14 you needed it to pay taxes the rest of life
3:15 life
3:19 eating drinking living accommodations
3:21 were governed by a different set of
3:23 norms it wasn't as if
3:26 you bought your way through everything but
3:26 but
3:28 the invention of money and the use of
3:30 money during medieval europe
3:33 had a lot to do with how armies equip themselves
3:35 themselves
3:37 so i want to like point out a couple of
3:38 interesting factoids
3:41 and draw a quick conclusion from them
3:42 one is
3:45 that money didn't play the role
3:47 in medieval europe that it plays in in
3:49 our current
3:57 money had different functions land
4:01 obligations title um
4:04 family history uh governed much more
4:07 um the way people lived together of
4:11 and it was all held together with the authority
4:12 authority
4:14 of the church with the with the divine authority
4:15 authority
4:18 that um made this the prescribed order
4:19 of things
4:22 and god's uh ordained
4:25 um way of organizing the world the
4:28 divine right of kings for example
4:30 what made somebody say that they could
4:32 be king
4:35 and it was the blessing of the clergy
4:38 and the plaque proclamation that this
4:39 was a divine right
4:43 that the authority behind the hierarchy
4:47 uh came from religiosity came from
4:49 uh the organization of the of the clergy
4:51 you know was the bridge between
4:55 the secular and the and the sacred um
4:58 and those networks of relationships
5:01 is what uh prescribed how one lived
5:05 what one did what one owed each other um
5:07 and so one thing that you can conclude
5:08 from this
5:12 is real fast money is
5:15 an invention that is malleable
5:19 to the way humans want to shape it that
5:23 there's no preordained as it were
5:26 law of nature that makes money
5:30 an objective uh universal uh
5:33 force that has its own rules and laws and
5:33 and
5:36 always exerted them in the world no
5:38 money is a
5:40 human invention it's something we agree
5:42 upon with each other it's
5:46 part of our social contract and as such
5:49 it's open to change and has
5:52 changed in modern times
5:55 and we'll talk some about that but i did
5:56 want to point out
5:59 that history shows us that these things
6:00 are not
6:03 carved in stone that there's a human element
6:04 element
6:06 which means a degree of decision and
6:08 freedom it also means
6:11 an open question whose interests are
6:12 served by this
6:16 why it did the money system that emerged
6:20 emerge what was its true function
6:23 uh in terms of who did it benefit
6:25 and who did it not and those are
6:26 important questions
6:29 to understand the role of money today
6:37 are benefiting from the money system and
6:40 that the monetary system is
6:44 established to deliver those benefits
6:48 now there's ideology and belief systems
6:49 around that
6:51 that if you you know feed the investment
6:52 class if you
6:56 uh make the wealthy wealthier um then
6:59 you know investment will happen and
7:02 economic activity will trickle down and
7:03 all boats will rise and
7:06 the private sector will grow and the
7:08 private sector
7:10 is is what we need in order to live a
7:11 good life
7:14 uh there's lots of uh arguments and and
7:16 political points of view
7:19 that are wrapped up around that and a
7:20 couple of others that relate to the
7:22 issues of the
7:25 social realm um hunger
7:30 other than scarcity um what wasn't a
7:33 pervasive issue in the middle ages um
7:36 in times of scarcity hunger of course
7:39 was um very important but
7:41 you weren't hungry because you didn't
7:42 have money
7:44 you weren't hungry because you didn't
7:46 have a job
7:50 there were no jobs per se
7:53 in the middle ages wage labor
7:57 was an invention of the industrial revolution
7:58 revolution
8:01 and people's livelihoods were bound up
8:04 in their social networks
8:07 and the role that they had and the
8:10 good devout life they were trying to lead
8:10 lead
8:13 the obligations that they saw themselves
8:13 as under
8:16 and their contributions to their fellow citizens
8:17 citizens
8:20 or citizens might be the wrong word but
8:21 they're they're fellow
8:25 subjects of of god um and they're
8:28 um relationship upward so the peasants
8:30 from the bourgeoisie
8:33 they had obligations to local landlords
8:35 local landlords had obligations
8:36 to the nobility that controlled the
8:39 lands and the nobility had obligations
8:40 to the
8:43 sovereign that provided them with the lands
8:44 lands
8:45 and that was the principle that
8:48 organized things so as a result
8:51 in the middle ages it's not the case
8:53 that if you didn't have a job you didn't
8:54 eat yeah
8:58 it is the case now if you're
9:00 if you're on unemployment because of the pandemic
9:02 pandemic
9:06 making rent and paying food bills and
9:08 getting health care are all at risk
9:10 because you lack money
9:14 not true in medieval times there were
9:17 obligations that people had towards you that
9:18 that
9:20 you benefited from and that you were a
9:22 part of and that you owed things back in return
9:23 return
9:27 but it wasn't based on money and
9:30 there's a notion a concept that's very
9:32 much at play these days
9:34 that was much bigger during medieval europe
9:35 europe
9:39 and that's the notion of the commons um
9:42 what is it in our world that resists
9:46 private ownership that resists
9:50 concept of property but instead
9:53 is a you know divine gift to
9:57 to humanity um for us to steward
10:01 uh well and according to to dictate
10:04 um but not to control
10:06 and exclude people from it was the commons
10:07 commons
10:10 it was the shared uh part of the world
10:13 land was very much a part of the commons
10:16 which is why it could change hands
10:20 at the whim of of uh yeah nobility
10:25 um so the world that we shared together
10:28 the common world that benefited us all
10:32 was much deeper and richer during that time
10:33 time
10:36 than today today one perspective
10:40 is that the commons what we share
10:43 in our in our world um has been monetized
10:44 monetized
10:47 has been privatized uh belongs to
10:48 somebody now
10:52 um in the past you didn't have to pay
10:56 in order to eat um you ate because of your
10:56 your
10:58 your standing in the community in which
11:00 you lived
11:03 now there's a line from a springsteen
11:08 don't you know these days you pay for everything
11:10 everything
11:13 and it's true more and more of what used
11:14 to be
11:18 part of the commons is now monetized
11:21 and needs to be paid for um
11:23 think of you know living in a in the
11:25 middle ages where
11:28 you could retrieve water from a common well
11:28 well
11:30 well now you gotta pay for water or you
11:32 don't get water um
11:35 where you could you know eat at a common
11:37 table where if you were visiting from
11:38 one community to another
11:41 you knew you had a place to stay and
11:43 food to stay alive with
11:46 um because of your participation
11:50 in a larger whole so and in many ways
11:53 the the social sector is up against some
11:54 of the challenges
11:57 of the shrinkage of the comet with the
12:00 industrial revolution and the rise of
12:01 the middle class
12:04 and the increasing dominance of the
12:06 bourgeoisie and
12:11 and certainly with the industrial
12:13 revolution the economic hierarchy
12:17 that we now live with uh has emerged and
12:19 and has become part of our historical presence
12:20 presence
12:22 and you guys know these sectors you know
12:24 there's the private sector the public
12:25 sector and the social sector
12:28 and we talked some last time about the
12:29 ways in which they overlap
12:31 about the ways in which they can work
12:34 together about the opportunity for
12:35 for creative alliances and
12:37 collaborations public
12:40 private partnerships are an example of that
12:41 that
12:45 but if we take a quick look at the
12:48 economic hierarchy we'll get some
12:49 insight into the
12:52 language that fills our public discourse
12:53 and the
12:56 way in which we approach issues
12:59 and wonder what sector does that belong to
12:59 to
13:01 is that a private sector problem or a
13:03 public sector problem
13:05 those are questions that wouldn't arise
13:06 under a different
13:11 um you know social organization
13:14 and so having the the anthropologists
13:15 point of view
13:18 on our own culture reminds us that those
13:20 constraints that
13:22 we take for granted as you know brick
13:24 walls that we bump into
13:27 really are human inventions um and the
13:28 real question is
13:32 um what are the purposes that they serve
13:35 and are those the purposes that
13:38 they ought to serve so there's a lot of
13:39 value questions there
13:41 but anyway the private sector clearly
13:42 they undertake
13:45 private action for a private game to enrich
13:46 enrich
13:49 um shareholders there's a
13:54 famous book called rich dad poor dad
13:57 and it's about the difference between how
13:58 how
14:01 the wealthy raised their kids and how
14:04 um the the working population raised
14:05 their kids
14:09 and you know if you're wealthy
14:11 you try to get your kids to understand that
14:12 that
14:15 wages salary working for money is not
14:17 the way to get rich
14:19 instead you want to build wealth you
14:21 want to own stuff
14:23 you want to have shares you want to have
14:24 stock you want to have
14:27 ownership you want a stake in activities that
14:28 that
14:31 will pay you from the work of others and that
14:32 that
14:34 getting a job that's well paying good
14:36 for you that's a good thing
14:39 but at the same time to build wealth
14:43 means to build capital
14:46 to accumulate capital to own
14:49 capital to control it and not necessarily
14:50 necessarily
14:53 you know to to have a successful uh
14:57 job whereas if you're the kid of a
14:58 working class
15:01 family it's all about you know getting a job
15:02 job
15:05 being reliable being loyal doing a good
15:07 work taking pride in what you do
15:10 the the values that um a
15:14 working class family tries to
15:17 provide to to its kids are
15:19 from a money standpoint different from
15:21 the values that
15:25 the the elite um try to install in their kits
15:26 kits
15:30 and so um sometimes entrepreneurship
15:33 is all about that sometimes um
15:36 you hear an entrepreneur say things like
15:38 i don't want to work for anybody else
15:40 i want to work for me now sometimes they're
15:41 they're
15:44 um they got a fantastical idea
15:48 as to what that means um i often respond
15:48 and go
15:52 yeah i get it man that's real freedom
15:54 you can pick whatever 80 hours every
15:55 week you work
15:58 you don't have to work the the 40 hours
15:59 for the man
16:01 you don't have to put in your time and
16:02 go home and do something else
16:05 you just need to devote yourself you know
16:06 know
16:09 80 90 100 to what you want to do but it's
16:09 it's
16:12 there's a lot of work involved so being
16:13 your own boss
16:17 uh isn't necessarily um you know
16:20 the image of uh being able to
16:22 do what you want in fact it's quite the
16:25 opposite and also it's a mistake too
16:29 because um uh of the role of capital
16:32 um if you're an entrepreneur and you
16:34 want to be your own boss
16:36 the minute you take capital the minute
16:39 you get financing for what you do
16:42 you got bosses um the
16:46 um suppliers of capital
16:49 um are the ones that really are your bosses
16:50 bosses
16:53 and can fire you um and take away your
16:56 your uh can't take away your stock in
16:56 the company
17:00 um but can certainly take away your your
17:03 role in it um i've had many
17:05 conversations with ceos
17:08 where they were the founders
17:11 and the investors came to the conclusion
17:13 that they were no longer the right
17:15 person to take this company to its next level
17:16 level
17:18 that they were great as founders they
17:20 were great as inventors
17:23 way to go you you grew your company this far
17:24 far
17:27 um but it's time to pass on
17:32 uh control um to somebody else um
17:34 and that's a hard conversation to have
17:36 with an entrepreneur
17:38 whose business is their baby and that
17:40 they were growing on their own
17:44 but at any rate the private sector
17:47 is private action for a private game and the
17:47 the
17:51 private gain is all about who owns it
17:53 it's all about shareholders it's all about
17:54 about
17:57 um the folks who um
18:01 have bought or earned a stake in your company
18:02 company
18:05 the public sector these days
18:08 is is being emptied right i mean they're
18:09 more and more
18:12 public functions are being privatized
18:15 the current debate in the news about the
18:17 future of the post office
18:21 um a venerable historical institution
18:24 that um you know meant a lot
18:28 and provided a lot in our history is um
18:30 you know on the block um could be privatized
18:32 privatized
18:35 highways now the transportation system
18:38 um many of them have turned into
18:41 private hands and there's of course powerful
18:42 powerful
18:50 move from the public sector
18:53 to the private sector what used to be
19:00 and though in that movement thinks of
19:02 itself as
19:06 selling that public good in order for
19:09 them to achieve private gain
19:11 well those are dynamics and some of the
19:13 issues of our times
19:17 the social sector is the hybrid
19:20 the social sector undertakes private action
19:20 action
19:24 for public good the social sector
19:26 tries to fill in the gaps um if there's
19:28 something needed for the public good
19:30 and there is no effective government
19:33 program that's that's addressing that
19:35 for whatever reason whether it's you
19:37 know political or economic
19:42 or whatever and there's not enough money
19:45 there to to provide the profit motive
19:49 for a private enterprise to enter and
19:52 try to you know pick up that slack and
19:55 do what needs to be done
19:58 then the social sector
20:02 often steps up and says let's organize ourselves
20:02 ourselves
20:05 and create this social value let's try to
20:06 to
20:08 solve this problem together nobody else
20:09 is doing it
20:13 and it needs to be done and here
20:16 we often focus
20:19 on the mission side of of the social
20:21 sector for sure
20:24 and so we should our role is to remind us
20:24 us
20:26 that without money there is no mission
20:28 got to throw that in there
20:31 alan proctor wrote a book called
20:34 mission and money so he knows this stuff
20:38 but at any rate um social sector
20:41 are private actions social sector are
20:43 individuals and
20:46 and entities and communities organizing themselves
20:47 themselves
20:50 into non-profits in order to try to create
20:51 create
20:54 that public or social value but they are
20:56 private actions
20:58 they're not um you know government
20:59 actions they're not
21:03 public actions and it's important to
21:05 again put this in historical perspective the
21:06 the
21:10 um social sector emerged
21:13 in uh western civilization uh
21:17 as a part of um actually there were two
21:20 independent paths that all came together
21:21 often related to each other and overlapping
21:22 overlapping
21:26 and um primarily it was communities of faith
21:27 faith
21:30 it was um religiosity it was
21:34 um the people who saw
21:38 in their personal lives um
21:41 and in their obligations you know sort
21:42 of related back to the
21:45 medieval world where where the
21:46 where those were the forces that
21:49 organized him and blessed everything and
21:52 was the source of of authority behind it all
21:52 all
21:55 um well it continues to exert an
21:57 influence on people
21:59 and education and healthcare in particular
22:00 particular
22:03 were two areas where communities of faith
22:04 faith
22:08 really put their resources behind it to
22:09 get it done
22:13 and the other parallel path
22:15 for the emergence of the social sector
22:17 were the robber barons
22:20 was the concentration of wealth
22:24 that the industrial revolution and the
22:27 private action for private gain um
22:28 brought about
22:31 um the wealthy got wealthier there was
22:35 an accumulation of capital um
22:38 wealth became outrageously
22:41 um uh uh under
22:44 the control of a single family
22:48 a rockefeller but the the names of our major
22:49 major
22:52 national foundations derive their corpus their
22:53 their
22:57 investment money from the wealth created
22:59 during the industrial revolution and post-industrial
23:00 post-industrial
23:03 revolution you got the gates foundation
23:03 being a
23:06 major major part of the the social sector
23:07 sector
23:11 and it too is a giving back on the part of
23:11 of
23:14 folks who who gained wealth from the system
23:15 system
23:18 and perhaps their motivations for doing so
23:19 so
23:22 might be religious might also be
23:25 um you know evoke ideas of those commons again
23:26 again
23:28 um you know the world that you guys
23:31 created enabled me to be successful
23:34 i need to contribute back my share
23:36 to the world that made me successful and
23:37 so i am
23:41 you know um contributing to the commons
23:43 and and building our our social life together
23:44 together
23:48 using the wealth that i accumulated uh
23:51 through private gain well anyway those
23:52 two different
23:56 economic and religious hierarchies
23:59 are different ways of organizing
24:02 our our social life together and the
24:06 private public social are the key
24:09 sectors of of the current time
24:12 that the private sector is designed
24:15 to respond to human needs and desires where
24:15 where
24:17 you know there's a free marketplace
24:20 where you can charge a price and get
24:21 paid for doing it
24:24 and the social sector addresses human
24:25 needs and desires
24:27 that aren't served by those free market enterprises
24:28 enterprises
24:30 fills gaps by creating and delivering
24:32 social value