Economy of the future: Why our abundance capitalism kills – THE WORLD

If the author completely unknown, it would certainly not let the title go through the publisher. “The Zero Marginal Cost Society” is the book in English. The German translation is also not easily off the tongue: “The zero marginal cost society”. But the American economist Jeremy Rifkin has a best-selling author, of course, a leap of faith.

His flair for upcoming topics he has proven time and again over the past decades. Mid-90s, he has “The End of Work”, thus the decline of the mass acquisition company predicted. Later, had so heard around the turn of the millennium, as everybody in a “sharing economy”, he wrote that “access” (access) in the digital age will more important than permanent ownership.

access is more important than ownership

He recently announced the “Third Industrial Revolution”, an era in which renewable energies and the Internet to a decentralized and comprehensive infrastructure together. Rifkin’s talent is to pick out from current trends the great social change, and whenever he published a book – so every two or three years – is his theme inevitably an entirely new order of time, an epochal breakthrough, a paradigm shift

In the latest book now run along some of the prophecies that Rifkin has done in the past, at around 450 pages. One may well speak of a best-of-Rifkin: The End of Work connects to the disappearance of the property and the Third Industrial Revolution to the comprehensive panorama of a future world that is no longer purely capitalist. The closest title would therefore have been “The end of capitalism.” But there are already too many books that say so.

profits break away

Rifkin’s input hypothesis is that capitalism is broken by its contradictions. Sounds like Marxism, but is a bit different reasons. For Rifkin does not see the cause of the conflict between capital and labor, but in the enormous productivity gains of a technologically sophisticated economy

Specifically:. Energy, communications and logistics in the coming decades so efficiently together that the goods and services needed in everyday life occur almost no marginal cost. (Marginal costs are the costs incurred in the production for the production of each additional unit.) What is already emerging in music and media today – a conditional by the digital distribution price decline – thus also covers all other industries

The break away profits, companies invest more, the jobs disappear. Does not matter, says Rifkin, people produce energy and goods simply themselves, are members of a based on barter economy high-tech community – and thus have everything they need for a good life, without having to work properly

abundance like in paradise

is brand new, the basic idea of ​​such an affluent society does not, it’s a bit like a fairy-tale Cockaigne. But Rifkin combines great vision sent with a realistic and detailed portrayal in nascent technologies. These are mainly renewable energies, their use will cost very little and can be shared over networks with other intelligent.

3-D printer, the only can manufacture kitchen tools do not, but also cars and entire houses. The Internet of Things, a whole army of computerized objects, which decrease the people the organization of everyday life. And a fully automated logistics, working with robots, unmanned vehicles and intelligent storage systems to bring things from A to B, and of course this at minimal marginal cost.

Now come the Commons

For Rifkin innovations as described inevitably lead to the downfall of capitalism and the large hierarchically organized businesses that have shaped him. Is being replaced by capitalism through the collaborative Commons.

This is a decentralized economic system based on common property, exchange and self-government and its historical roots in the medieval has commons. As harbingers of such social economy Rifkin leads the successful start-ups in the “sharing economy” into the field, bring their based on the barter economy business models, the established companies in distress.

The fact that some companies the” sharing economy “are not profit, but exclusively profit-driven and intent on rapid growth, Rifkin does not really seem to bother. In general, is of quite a few things present, contrary to the Rifkinschen Future Directions -., The recent development of the Internet in particular, an ideal typical common property to be generally accessible, open and decentralized, but which is increasingly influenced by economic and political interests of the few players

What’s with Google, Facebook, Amazon?

Of course, Rifkin mentions the threatening power of Google, Facebook and Amazon, the access to enormous amounts of data and the associated opportunities for commercial exploitation and manipulation. Here – as in other industries – Rifkin sees an impending conflict between the commoners and the capitalists, between the Wikipedias and Googles, the Wikipedias but the win ultimately. This is an assessment with which Rifkin currently stands quite alone.

The same is true for the energy sector. To build a comprehensive energy Internet in the next few decades, which allows to produce electricity from renewable energy cost and to share with each other, huge investments are initially required. That the big corporations will play in times of high public debt are not relevant here, is hardly conceivable.

Rifkin called E.on and the German Telekom as examples of German companies that invest now already in the first steps. You do hardly to pave the Commons the way, but because they want to use the enormous design possibilities that brings the energy Internet with it, why not. Here, as elsewhere, the following applies: Where the technological development leads – whether to more decentralization or more monopoly – is quite open

Will we all have 3-D printers

<.? p id = "p21" class = "text prefix_1 artContent"> At least convincing Rifkin is where he describes the transformation of an era marked by the scarcity economy for our affluent society. Rifkin argues that the zero marginal cost society will lead to a moderation: people, which is all at negligible cost available, will be less materially oriented and have different priorities

where Rifkin differs from Cockaigne-narrative a little, it must also, because he is not only economics, but also ecological and approvingly quotes Gandhi: “The earth has enough for everyone’s needs, but not . enough for all greed “

In fact, the basic needs of most citizens of Western industrialized nations are covered for several decades – and yet the appetite is not small at More become. It may be that an ecological disaster the shift in consciousness forces sometime. But he adjusts by itself, just because everything is to be had in abundance, seems rather unlikely.

It would be interesting in a kind of anti-Rifkin to write a description of a near future in which millions of unemployed, with 3-D printers run through the world and everywhere stand cars, yachts and villas. Just because they can. To zero marginal cost

Photo:. Ddp images / Baziz Chibane / SIPA Born in 1945, economist, sociologist and publicist Chicago native and one of the leading thinkers of our work and business world. Whether the “end of work” (1995) or to criticize the meat industry (1994) – many of his predictions were ahead of their time

Photo: Campus Verlag In his latest book, “The zero-marginal cost society”, which was released a few days ago on German (Campus, Frankfurt am Main 528. S., 27 €), Rifkin asks, with what economic system we get to do it in the future when the production of goods is always cheaper and possession is

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