by 
Part of my goal in putting together the After Capitalism research into a book (admittedly going too slowly!) is identify positive images or visions of the post-capitalist future. A huge concern of mine is that the debate will be framed as either capitalism vs socialism or capitalism vs communism. In my opinion, both of these framings would be detrimental if not deadly for the debate. My sense is that supporters of capitalism are licking their chops at this framing. Both socialism and communism are backward-looking “used futures” (to use Sohail Inayatullah’s wonderful concept) loaded down with a ton of baggage given their challenging historical implementations.
I suspect most futurists would agree with the above diagnosis, but what’s the prescription? In my research so far, the main three buckets of visions are:
- Tech-led Abundance. The core idea is that this is the tech-fix scenario.
- Non-workers’ Paradise. This play on worker’s paradise focuses on concepts around a “post-work” world in the sense of paid work being the primary distribution mechanism for accessing goods and services. It may be dangerous in that it evokes the communist boogeyman noted above.
- Sustainable Commons. The works comprising this concept sort into environmentally inclined or morality-based or purpose driven – often combining the two. The “commons” idea is key here, but again this sounds like communism (even though it’s not).
A challenge is that awareness of these future-oriented visions are not as well-known as the used futures of socialism and communism, nor are they worked through in enough detail to compare favorable to capitalism, which is supported by massive bodies of research and real experience. There is a growing body of research and evidence and support suggesting that capitalism has some serious issues and there are more and more alternative ideas emerging in just the last several years. Not too long ago, UBI (universal basic income) was seen as way too out there, but is now practically in the mainstream as a discussion topic.
Perhaps it’s too early to frame the debate, as the alternatives need to be shaped up! In the meantime, we may be best served by steering clear of bringing in the used futures. – Andy Hines
Andy,
I’m so glad to see you writing about this subject. The conversation is critical right now. The EDGE funders have a great model of a Just Transition that shows us how to get to that abundant future. https://edgefunders.org/jtc/
perfect, Trista. That link is right on point — thanks for sharing it! And keep up the good work!