Wednesday, November 7, 2018

World After Capital

In World After Capital, Albert Wenger argues that capital is no longer scarce. We have all the capital we need to meet our "needs", and so our society should be restructured to instead maximize what's scarce. What does he deem scarce? Attention.

I couldn't believe how flimsy some of his arguments were. He seems to state something that he (but not I) believes to be true, and then just assume it to be the case when he builds on his points.

And yet, I mostly agree with almost all of his suggestions, which is kind of wacky. Things like UBI, fewer protections for patents/copyright and improvements in democracy are all things I can get behind. But I see those as helping us improve capitalism, rather than as some new post-capitalistic way of life.

Wenger correctly cites some limits of capitalism, but that hardly means it's time to stop. Those limits have always been there, and yet capitalism has solved many problems large and small. I don't expect that to stop any time soon.

This book will stretch you to think about things you probably don't want to change in society, so at the very least it could open your mind.

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