Post-Capitalism

We're currently in the middle of (what some have labelled) the info-tech revolution. Computers, increasingly in every home and the internet have connected the whole world and their information/data. This information has value - you only have to see the facebook scandal involving Cambridge Analytica to know that big businesses are aware of it's value too. Not only does the information have value but the fact that everyone is connected has created new possibilities.

All the worlds information being accessible brings change/opportunity. It enables companies to reach more people, to target more appropriate people and tailor their products to consumer needs. It's computer technology that has made this data accessible. You're probably thinking how companies having advantages is going to do anything but encourage capitalism?

Capitalism itself, is often seen as the only way that different businesses and markets can exist in a world dictated by supply and demand. It's flaws though, are known to most of the world. We're all effectively in one giant pyramid scheme really. Each year that top 1% getting richer whilst the rest get poorer. Is capitalism a mechanism brought upon us by politicians, laws and businesses reacting to these policies when really we don't need it? Probably not. It exists out of necessity currently. It works. When other methods have been tried they have failed. Most noticeably communism (which theoretically speaking was a strong idea). It's the competition between companies competing for profits and their reactions to consumer supply and demand that make capitalism thrive. However, as soon as a different system works better - capitalism will die naturally.

So what is Post-Capitalism and how will it be achieved?

Theoretically capitalism as we know it is going to fail. Companies aren't going to be competing for profit - most won't even exist. Most people in the world won't work and if they do they probably won't get paid because they're there voluntarily. Most goods and services will also be free. The info-tech revolution will apparently cause this through disruption of supply and demand. Very much like what has happened to the music industry in the last 20 years. As soon as people could download digital music for free, CD sales dropped. Even though legislation came in it wasn't enough. Nowadays most people listen to music for free through streaming services. The demand never went down it's just the supply went to infinite digital copies. Not only did the supply go to infinite but the supply was basically free. Each digital copy of music has no cost to produce compared to it's equivalent tape/CD/vinyl. Even if Spotify spent $1 billion on The Beatles back catalogue, a supply of infinite (for free) to a demand of potentially infinite would make that figure negligible. This is the biggest reason for the info-tech revolution (post-capitalism) - having such huge demand and production that is literally free. Any number divided by infinity is zero.

As technology improves more things will go the way music went. In fact, they have already started, after music was movies. Yeah, we might still have cinemas but who's renting films? Free games are so successful online that for years we've been hearing games consoles could be ending after next generation... Internet games have already affected the number of console games being made in recent years. File sharing has made a lot of software free. Wikipedia has replaced encyclopedias. Books, newspapers and magazines are becoming digital. Apps like uber are destroying jobs like taxi drivers. Increasingly shops, banks and restaurants are replacing staff with machines. Cryptocurrencies are slowly but surely killing banks. There will be things I've not mentioned too. More and more things will see massive reductions in cost in the future.

We're already on the brink of massive change. Technology stops for no one. As all these things happen it also drives down the need for money for the consumer. This may lead to an age of real prosperity. The consequences would be vast, class systems would probably break down, countries might be less inclined to go to war with each other etc. These are only some of the possible outcomes there will be even more to come in the future.

Post-Capitalism might not be imminent but it could be a lot closer than we might think.

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