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comment by Isherwood
Isherwood  ·  3177 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Post-Capitalism Has Begun

This is an interesting idea. I've been thinking a lot about the ongoing battle between classical economists and behavioral economists. I think, and this is one of my broken record topics, the transition will come as economists start to look at more than financial capital as the constant prime motivator. As they start to apply their mathematical models to emotional currency social currency, currencies I haven't even thought of, the capital of capitalism will shift and move away from a money motivated system.

As for the loss of jobs and the rise of free time, I like the work of Shoshana Zuboff. Where most are saying that the rise of machines will result in the loss of service work and that nothing will take its place, she theorizes that the loss in service work will give rise to a support economy.

I hear bits and pieces of it in this article, and articles like it, where people are finding value not in simply providing a service but in providing actual support to another human being. The difference being in a service economy a service worker could show you where the clothes are. In a support economy a support worker could listen to you and your life story to learn about your style and preferences and support you as a person.

It might be a pipe dream, but a lot of the predictions of her first book, rise of the smart machine, came true and I like to think the support economy is equally as likely.





user-inactivated  ·  3177 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    . . . she theorizes that the loss in service work will give rise to a support economy.

Hmm. Sounds compelling. Do you have something you can link to?

Isherwood  ·  3177 days ago  ·  link  ·  

http://www.summary.com/book-reviews/_/The-Support-Economy/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshana_Zuboff#The_Support_Economy

It really is worth a read though. It's a long book but she's a good story teller and simplifier of complicated ideas. Sometimes she gets bogged down in providing every, single, number, but you get used to it and pick up on what you can skim over and what's new information.

user-inactivated  ·  3177 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Awesome. I'll look into it.