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Friday
Sep192008

The Evolution of Capitalism ?

The playing field certainly seems to be shifting fast.


Shoshana Zuboff and Jim Maxmin wrote a book about 5 years ago titled The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and The Next Episode of Capitalism.


I'm not suggesting here that we're on our way to a support economy; I want to focus on the words "The Next Episode of Capitalism".


Here's a quote from Digby's Hullabaloo that offers another perspective on some of the forces propelling the evolution of "capitalism", a concept that I think many  people today take for granted and don't think much about.


What does capitalism look and act like in a de facto plutocracy ?


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Three Thoughts


[ Snip ... ]


Naomi Klein published a brilliant article in Rolling Stone about the surveillance industry in China and the illegal American connections to it. The article also made the point that China was evolving a new governing philosophy, kind of a "Stalinist-capitalism."


As the US seeks to nationalize more and more failing brokers, banks and insurance companies, while also shredding what's left of the Constitution's safeguards, it seems as if we're evolving into a capitalist-Stalinist state.


O, brave new world...


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O, brave new world ... indeed.


As I have mentioned before, the interconnectedness that I often cite as a key driver of wirearchy can just as easily be a dark force (electronic surveillance and various forms of control) as it can be democratizing and empowering.


No doubt we are going to learn a lot more about how we will all live together in this brave new world over the next six months.


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