Does Capitalism Have a Future?

Abstract

The chapter asks whether neoliberal or any other form of capitalism can take us safely through the twenty-first century. Can it survive the coming crises of mass technological unemployment and climate change but also the rise of the knowledge economy and the impact of growing socio-economic divisions? First, we outline the recent anxieties expressed by conservative IGOs, such as the IMF and OECD, concerning the world economy’s low-growth performance. After decades insisting that only neoliberal free-market practices can engender global expansion, they now suggest governments should abandon austerity, reduce inequality, and borrow and invest where private capitalism fails to do so. Second, the discussion explores the argument that the vast wealth and income accruing to the top one and ten per cent places them in a different economic universe from everyone else. Thus, their consumption preferences, saving practices and investment choices increasingly shape the direction of entire economies, determine which industries and firms will flourish and trigger damaging financial speculation. A third section assesses the argument that the IT economy of cognitive capitalism makes possible abundant and free goods that can readily be imitated and shared by consumers who have access to iPods, laptops, tablets, and so on. Some economists argue that this new economy undermines the ability of capitalist firms to make profits. The latter’s response, as in the case of global IT and social media giants, is to protect their products by creating monopolies and extending intellectual property rights. But this stifles innovation and market growth and constitutes yet another aspect of super-exploitation by a vampire capitalists. Finally, the chapter sketches certain future dystopic scenarios that might arise should capitalist elites and governments prove unable or unwilling to implement global reforms, especially reducing inequality, achieving the transition to renewable energy sources and establishing fair distribution systems to replace the wage economy as a work-less future increasingly beckons. Here, we anticipate it will not be markets but the effectiveness and demands of future people’s socio-political movements that will mostly determine how these transformations work out.