“The aim of the gift economy is accumulation for de-accumulation; the gift economy is above all a debt-economy, where the actors strive to maximize outgoings. The system can be described as one of ‘alternating disequilibrium’, where the aim is never to have debts ‘paid off’, but to preserve a situation of personal indebtedness.”

Ian Morris, Gift and Commodity in Ancient Greece, March 1986 (via teaandthorazine)