Commercial platforms cannot prioritise the ideals of a liberal public sphere, much less the principle of popular sovereignty, over the profit motive. Introduction The information technology sector broadly defined is now at the leading edge of the capitalist system. Material production and distribution, enterprise and professional management, finance, insurance and real estate are all increasingly […]
Degrowth: a theory of radical abundance
The Lauderdale Paradox first articulated by James Maitland holds that an increase in “private riches” is achieved bychoking off “public wealth”. This is done not only in order to acquire free value from the commons but also, I argue, in order to create an “artificial scarcity” that generates pressuresfor competitive productivity. Degrowth seeks to invert […]
Was the Rise of Neoliberalism the Root Cause of Extreme Inequality?
Financial meltdown, environmental disaster and even the rise of Donald Trump – neoliberalism has played its part in them all. Neoliberalism’s triumph also reflects the failure of the left. When laissez-faire economics led to catastrophe in 1929, Keynes devised a comprehensive economic theory to replace it. When Keynesian demand management hit the buffers in the […]
An economist explains how to value the internet
digital goods have three characteristics that are very different from previous goods. They’re virtually free, perfect and instant. What that means is the cost of making an additional copy of a digital good is basically zero; each copy is an identical, perfect replica of the original; and they can be distributed anywhere in the world […]
Evolving the New Economy: Tim O’Reilly and David Sloan Wilson
Evolutionary theory meets artificial intelligence and the management of algorithms. David Sloan Wilson interview with Tim O’Reilly I use the phrase “Evolving the Future” a lot nowadays. It’s the title of a major scientific review article (“Evolving the Future: Toward a Science of Intentional Change”) and part of the subtitle of my next book (“This View of […]