Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber

 

"...then what would it mean to 'own' a freedom--wouldn't it have to mean that our right to own property is itself a form of property? That does seem unnecessarily convoluted. What possible reason would one have to want to define it this way? Historically, there is a simple--if somewhat disturbing--answer to this. Those who have argued that we are the natural owners of our rights and freedoms have been mainly interested in asserting that we should be free to give them away, or even to sell them."