Izabella Kaminska: Uberisation of the Economy: Gosplan 2.0.
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SERIES 2.2: POST-CAPITALISM 7 MAR - IZABELLA KAMNISKA (FINANCIAL TIMES): UBERISATION OF THE ECONOMY: GOSPLAN 2.0 The sharing economy isn't what you think it is. Nor is the platform economy. Furthermore, we've been here before. Last time it was under the guise of 'red plenty'. Could we be sleep walking our way into a technocratic dictatorship? The first signs to suggest we are are already bubbling over: from safe harbour disagreements to Uber boycots. In this presentation I will explain why the most important factor the techies in Silicon Valley are forgetting is that there is no such thing as free, that cross subsidisation doesn't create an ecosystem, and that things are always relative and subject to diminishing returns. The digital business models of today are simply obscuring fixed costs vs marginal costs, whilst encouraging predation. Which wouldn't be so bad if they weren't also encouraging underinvestment in the real economy, precarious systemic interconnectedness and many other vulnerabilities. They're also kicking the problem of the tragedy of the commons down the road. Once the world wakes up to the costs of the digital liberty illusion, the hangover could be considerable. Ultimately this all comes down to the theory of Anacyclosis, best summed up as what has before will happen again, and that real innovation is really, really hard. Most of the time what passes off as innovation today amounts to nothing more than redrawing the lines in the sand and a zero-sum game. The underlying sandbox hasn't arguably been busted through since the industrial revolution itself. Bio: Izabella Kaminska is a writer, commentator and blogger for the Financial Times and its blog FT Alphaville. She's been a journalist for Reuters, CNBC and the Warsaw Business Journal. She's interested in connecting the dots between all the stuff that nobody really thinks is related. How does a computer processor cause the 2008 banking crisis? What does the price of oil have to do with Switzerland? What's the London super sewer got to do with faster payments? How is the art world a precursor to bitcoin? What does an Amazon parcel delivery service got to do with Blythe Masters? She spent some time messing about in the Post Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Georgia when she was straight out of school. Academically she holds an undergraduate in Ancient History from UCL, a master's in journalism from what was then LCP and an art foundation course from Chelsea College of art.
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I think she needs to get to grips with what communism actually is. It is worker control of the means of production. The USSR was never a communist society - they just called it that, i.e. propaganda - it was the state that controlled the means of production, there was no worker input. The USSR was more correctly called State Capitlism (this is Noam Chomsky's view not mine).
As for tragedy of the commons. That book has been totally discounted as not reflective of how a commons is actually managed, which is where every individual who has a stake in the commons has a vote and voice in how it is used. The Auriel Sea lost its water as it was diverted to irrigate cotton fields without consultation with the people that relied on the sea.
As for Uber, it is classic capatilism which externalises its cost. i.e. you run and maintain the car. Go back to how the first taxi companies were formed and you will find they formed in much the same way (it is very telling that Uber driver are seeking to Unionise)
The entire first half of this talk was irrelevant. If she had just blown the myth that the sharing economy is not revolutionary and then supported her argument it would have been far more coherent. -
This is quite incoherent,jumping from one analogy and story to another.And how is uberisation related to post capitalism?Maybe she has beeen listening to Paul Mason,he should stop mentioning the sharing economy which has quite obviously been appropriated by capitalism.At least they have stolen the concept.
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