Skip to content

PostCapitalism

Is neoliberalism the only way?

One needs to look at capitalism in its entirety: rogue traders, irrational desire of goods, collapsing factories in Bangladesh, etc. These are of course by-products, but they would exist without the status quo being what it is.

Capitalism is also a learning organism. It adapts, morphs, etc. It's a complex system. It drives technological change...and not just IT.

However...

It's lost its ability to adapt. It's ability to adapt has stalled.

Information is different from every previous technology.

"Individualism replaced collectivism and solidarity"

Technology has created a new "route out" of capitalism. At first this will be subtle, unseen. However, it will break through. And reshape the economy around new values, behaviors, and norms.

It will be shaped by emergence of a new kind of human being and it has started.

The main contradiction today is between the possibility of abundant goods and information, and system of monopolies, banks, and governments trying to keep things private, scarce, and commercial. Everything comes down to the struggle of the network and hierarchy. Between of the old forms of society, molded around capitalism and new forms of society, that prefigure what comes next.

The struggle for justice collided with the real power that runs the world. What allowed neoliberalism to flourish:

  1. Fiat Money
  2. Financialization
  3. Global imbalances
  4. Information technology

Fiat money - money not backed by gold (in August 1971 the USA scrapped an agreement that pegged the dollar to gold).

"Networked individualism"

A new kind of worker: "she / he is focused on the short term, in life as in work and lacks commitment to hierarchies and social structures; both at work and in activism"

Interesting Visualization of an Economy (and its actors)

  • Blue Dots (company structures)
  • Red Lines (transactions)
  • Green Lines (structures within an org)
  • Yellow lines! (stuff being done for free)

"In the end, all we're trying to do is move as much of human activity as possible into a phase where the labor that's necessary to support very rich and complex human life on the plant falls, and the amount of free time, grows. And in the process the division between the two gets even more blurred."

"Post capitalism will set you free"