The end of capitalism has begun

[applegrove]

The end of capitalism has begun

by Paul Mason at the Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/17/postcapitalism-end-of-capitalism-begun

"SNIP..............


The red flags and marching songs of Syriza during the Greek crisis, plus the expectation that the banks would be nationalised, revived briefly a 20th-century dream: the forced destruction of the market from above. For much of the 20th century this was how the left conceived the first stage of an economy beyond capitalism. The force would be applied by the working class, either at the ballot box or on the barricades. The lever would be the state. The opportunity would come through frequent episodes of economic collapse.

Instead over the past 25 years it has been the left’s project that has collapsed. The market destroyed the plan; individualism replaced collectivism and solidarity; the hugely expanded workforce of the world looks like a “proletariat”, but no longer thinks or behaves as it once did.

If you lived through all this, and disliked capitalism, it was traumatic. But in the process technology has created a new route out, which the remnants of the old left – and all other forces influenced by it – have either to embrace or die. Capitalism, it turns out, will not be abolished by forced-march techniques. It will be abolished by creating something more dynamic that exists, at first, almost unseen within the old system, but which will break through, reshaping the economy around new values and behaviours. I call this postcapitalism.

As with the end of feudalism 500 years ago, capitalism’s replacement by postcapitalism will be accelerated by external shocks and shaped by the emergence of a new kind of human being. And it has started.



.............SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. I believe there will always be a place for markets. But free information will be a great leveler.

Last edited Fri Jul 17, 2015, 08:24 PM - Edit history (1)

I don't think patents for some years after a new drug is invented will always be.

[daleanime]

3. Markets, maybe....

Capitalist, not so sure.

It's had it's chance. Been the star performer for at least the last 30 years, how that working out for us? How did it respond to Climate Change? And wasn't the great recession cause free range Capitalist?

[applegrove]

4. Yes. But there are examples of mixed markets in northern europe that are doing very well for the

world. It will be mixed markets in the end.

[shenmue]

2. It's the Guardian.

Couple good podcasts, good crossword. Everything else, neh.

[truebluegreen]

5. Heh.

After 500 years capitalism has reached its cannibalistic stage, consuming itself and people and the planet, and it will not last much longer. What will replace it? Continued dystopia, or a shared, sustainable world? Better hope, and work for, the latter.

[Igel]

6. Again? n/t

[bemildred]

7. Interesting, provocative, thanks. nt