[p2p-research] Post-Capitalism

[Kevin Carson]

On 7/13/10, Daniel Araya <levelsixmedia at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Where we may disagree agree, I think, is with regard to the rise of
> industrializing countries. My own view is that advanced countries have
> reached their peak economically. Assuming of course that the kind of
> capitalism that takes shape among BRIC countries is progressively reshaped
> for sustainability and green innovation (which looks to be China's long run
> goal-- see below), then we may be able to avoid the coming global melt down
> that Western capitalism has pioneered. In that sense, I think we have
> crossed a rubicon in the last decade that will reshape the global landscape.

I think the very idea of "the economy," capitalist or any other kind,
has reached its peak.  That's not to say that any place, including the
industrialized world, has reached a peak in terms of standard of
living.  I'm guardedly optimistic on that score.  But there's not much
growth potential for "the economy," capitalist or any other kind, in
the developing world or anywhere else, because post-scarcity
technology is undermining innovation as something to be capitalized as
a source of revenue.  As the capital outlays required for a given
level of production implode, and artificial scarcities/artificial
property rights become increasingly unenforceable as a source of
rents, the monetized economy will shrink everywhere.

-- 
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
http://mutualist.blogspot.com
The Homebrew Industrial Revolution:  A Low-Overhead Manifesto
http://homebrewindustrialrevolution.wordpress.com
Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html