In ancient Greece, bankruptcy did not exist…
In the face of a suffering economy, our government and many organizations are talking about what bankruptcy means for businesses, employees and consumers.
While the word bankruptcy does not come from the Greek language, it’s interesting to examine why, in ancient Greece, bankruptcy did not exist:
If a father owed (since only locally born adult males could be citizens, it was fathers who were legal owners of property) and he could not pay, his entire family of wife, children and servants were forced into “debt slavery”, until the creditor recouped losses via their physical labor. Many city-states in ancient Greece limited debt slavery to a period of five years and debt slaves had protection of life and limb, which regular slaves did not enjoy. However, servants of the debtor could be retained beyond that deadline by the creditor and were often forced to serve their new lord for a lifetime, usually under significantly harsher conditions.
(Source: Wikipedia)
I’m not suggesting Chrysler should revert to Ancient Greece’s methods of avoiding bankruptcy, but it’s interesting to gain perspective on some ancient traditions and how far we’ve come.
(photo: heipei)