Radical new economic system will emerge from collapse of cap

[pErvinalia]

I'm not buying it, but that may be because I don't fully understand what he's on about yet.

At the very moment of its ultimate triumph, capitalism will experience the most exquisite of deaths.

This is the belief of political adviser and author Jeremy Rifkin, who argues the current economic system has become so successful at lowering the costs of production that it has created the very conditions for the destruction of the traditional vertically integrated corporation.

Rifkin, who has advised the European Commission, the European Parliament and heads of state, including German chancellor Angela Merkel, says:

No one in their wildest imagination, including economists and business people, ever imagined the possibility of a technology revolution so extreme in its productivity that it could actually reduce marginal costs to near zero, making products nearly free, abundant and absolutely no longer subject to market forces.

With many manufacturing companies surviving only on razor thin margins, they will buckle under competition from small operators with virtually no fixed costs.

“We are seeing the final triumph of capitalism followed by its exit off the world stage and the entrance of the collaborative commons,” Rifkin predicts.

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable- ... capitalism

[laklak]

As long as I get more of the almost free shit than those other bozos then count me in.

[JimC]

I'll believe it when the free gin starts flowing...

[rainbow]

What complete utter drivel!

Capitalism, at least in the West has been dead for some time.

The new system is Corporate Cronyism.

[pErvinalia]

'No true capitalism' fallacy?

[rainbow]

No, it's a Phallacy - a system where the dicks are in charge.

[pErvinalia]

By the way, cronyism is a natural outcome of a capitalist system, IMO. Marx probably said something like that too. I know others did. But that makes me a Marxist!!1!

[PsychoSerenity]

"No one in their wildest imagination, including economists and business people, ever imagined the possibility of a technology revolution so extreme in its productivity that it could actually reduce marginal costs to near zero, making products nearly free, abundant and absolutely no longer subject to market forces."

Perhaps many economists and business people hadn't imagined it, but somewhere between left-wing philosophy and science fiction, similar ideas have been bouncing around for half a century or more.

Some of us are wishing we could just bloody get on with it already.

[pErvinalia]

Basically, when we can have a matter rearranger aka the Jetsons linked to a star trek type teleporter, all our problems will be sor'ed!

[rainbow]

"No one in their wildest imagination, including economists and business people, ever imagined the possibility of a technology revolution so extreme in its productivity that it could actually reduce marginal costs to near zero, making products nearly free, abundant and absolutely no longer subject to market forces."

Perhaps many economists and business people hadn't imagined it, but somewhere between left-wing philosophy and science fiction, similar ideas have been bouncing around for half a century or more.

Some of us are wishing we could just bloody get on with it already.

The big mistake that the OP makes is overvaluing the contribution of manufacturing.
In the UK economy it represents about 10% of GDP. The major part is services coming in at 80%.
The balance is building stuff and growing turnips.

...so the product costs next to nothing, but you have to pay for the shelf packers and the chairman's yacht.

[pErvinalia]

I'm not sure that's quite on the money. My problem with his idea, after a fairly superficial look, is that manufactured goods is the problem. You can't replicate manufactured goods for free, like you can with a digital product like music or movies etc. Even if we could soon 3D print a car, for example, it would still require resource input. Therefore there will still be a major cost involved. I guess you cut out about 50 middle-men in the process, but it still would be far from "free".

The other issue I have is that while UK may only manufacture 10% of it's economy, people import a lot of their manufactured goods from overseas. So the resource use involved in the global economy is far more than an average 10%.

[Hermit]

With many manufacturing companies surviving only on razor thin margins, they will buckle under competition from small operators with virtually no fixed costs.

Sure. I can easily imagine someone setting up a manufacturing facility for next to nothing that knocks out millions of chips so cheaply, Intel and AMD will shrivel up and die.

Mr. Rifkin is the founder and president of The Foundation on Economic Trends (http://www.foet.org) in Bethesda, MD. Its website describes him as "principle (sic) architect" of something or other. I think he designs cloud castles.

[Seth]

With many manufacturing companies surviving only on razor thin margins, they will buckle under competition from small operators with virtually no fixed costs.

Sure. I can easily imagine someone setting up a manufacturing facility for next to nothing that knocks out millions of chips so cheaply, Intel and AMD will shrivel up and die.

I doubt it. All they have to do is improve their chip so it works better and faster. That's how it works now, and that's why Intel and AMD exist, rather than just Intel. The bigs can also use their market power to prevent cheap knock-off chips from being used in manufacturers computers, just as Apple did in the beginning, by cutting off manufacturers who don't agree to only use "authorized" chips. They can also use that power to make other infrastructure and software incompatible with knock-offs, as Intel has done before. While the do-it-yourself community will still build their own, they are an insignificant fraction of the market. Most people don't want to fuck with their boxes, they just want them to work, first time, every time, and they will stick with name brands to make sure that happens.

And the last resort is to petition government to bomb the "illegal" competing factory into oblivion.

[JimC]

You do realise Hermit had his tongue firmly in his cheek, don't you?

At least I hope it was his own cheek...

[Hermit]

No, Jim, I was deadly serious. In a few years anyone will be able to design a chip six square centimetres in size with circuits a few nanometres thick, populate it with a billion switches and produce a few million units a year in dust proof conditions for next to nothing. That's what 3D printers are for. I know it's true because Jeremy Rifkin said so, and he is the founder of The Foundation on Economic Trends (http://www.foet.org) in Bethesda, MD, and a principle (sic) Architect!