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Work and Worth

The history of labour, money and the value assigned to them.

Payment, trade, debt and resistance at work each have a vocabulary with older objects and customs behind it. Read together, the words trace changing ideas of what labour is worth.

In approximate historical order, from the origins and events behind the words.

  1. salary (n.)salt, and a missing source
  2. bank (n.)a money-changer's bench
  3. bankruptcy (n.)a broken bench
  4. sabotage (n.)a wooden shoe, but not thrown
  5. robot (n.)from forced labour

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