Paul Mason discusses PostCapitalism and how the digital revolution will create a third economic sector which will affect how we work and generate an income.
A few notes from the talk:
- The American median wage for men is the same in 2008 as it was in 1973.
- Wages are suppressed which creates a rise in credit and this in turn creates a boom/bust cycle. 3 of which we have experienced in the past 15 years.
- In the current economic model things which can be copied (e.g. digital music, software, information) should be free as they take very little materials or labour to re-create. Companies have artificially created scarcity.
- Information delinks work from wages. We will no longer have to work to time but to targets and work can be modular.
- Fear of automation means we create jobs which don't need to exist.
- We used to wash our cars in automated car-washes but these are being undercut by cheap labour.
- There has been an evolution of large companies to create barriers around information products (iTunes).
- There has been a creation of a new sector which is not state or private but is built around products being offered for free, volunteering and co-operatives.
“If we all open-sourced our stuff then the leading edge of what is valuable, that has ultra-value, that is innovative would be far more identifiable.”