Automation, Capitalism and the End of the Middle Class

Automation, Capitalism and the End of the Middle Class

Author: Jon-Arild Johannessen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-04-18

Total Pages: 83

ISBN-13: 1000020347

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this book, the author argues that a new form of capitalism is emerging at the threshold of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. He asserts that we are in the midst of a transition from democratic capitalism to feudal capitalism and highlights how robotization and innovation is leading to a social crisis for the middle classes as economic inequality is on the rise. Johannessen outlines the three elements – Balkanization, the Great Illusion, and the plutocracy – which are referred to here as feudal structures. He describes, analyzes, and discusses these elements both individually and in interaction with each other, and asks: "What structures and processes are promoting and boosting feudal capitalism?" Additionally, the book serves to generate knowledge about how the middle class will develop in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It shows the various effects of robotization on the middle class, where middle class jobs are transformed, deconstructed, and re-constructed and new part-time jobs are created for the middle class. Given the interest in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the book will appeal to students of economic sociology and political economy as well as those in innovation and knowledge management courses focusing upon the emerging innovation economy. The topic will attract policymakers, and the accessible and engaging tone will also make the book of interest to the general public.


Postcapitalism

Postcapitalism

Author: Paul Mason

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2016-02-09

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0374235546

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Originally published in 2015 by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Random House, Great Britain"--Title page verso.


Automation and the Future of Work

Automation and the Future of Work

Author: Aaron Benanav

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2022-04-19

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 1839761326

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A consensus-shattering account of automation technologies and their effect on workplaces and the labor market In this consensus-shattering account of automation technologies, Aaron Benanav investigates the economic trends that will shape our working lives far into the future. Silicon Valley titans, politicians, techno-futurists, and social critics have united in arguing that we are on the cusp of an era of rapid technological automation, heralding the end of work as we know it. But does the muchdiscussed “rise of the robots” really explain the long-term decline in the demand for labor? Automation and the Future of Work uncovers the deep weaknesses of twenty-first-century capitalism and the reasons why the engine of economic growth keeps stalling. Equally important, Benanav goes on to salvage from automation discourse its utopian content: the positive vision of a world without work. What social movements, he asks, are required to propel us into post-scarcity if technological innovation alone can’t deliver it? In response to calls for a permanent universal basic income that would maintain a growing army of redundant workers, he offers a groundbreaking counterproposal.


Inventing the Future

Inventing the Future

Author: Nick Srnicek

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2015-11-17

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 1784780987

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This major new manifesto offers a “clear and compelling vision of a postcapitalist society” and shows how left-wing politics can be rebuilt for the 21st century (Mark Fisher, author of Capitalist Realism) Neoliberalism isn’t working. Austerity is forcing millions into poverty and many more into precarious work, while the left remains trapped in stagnant political practices that offer no respite. Inventing the Future is a bold new manifesto for life after capitalism. Against the confused understanding of our high-tech world by both the right and the left, this book claims that the emancipatory and future-oriented possibilities of our society can be reclaimed. Instead of running from a complex future, Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams demand a postcapitalist economy capable of advancing standards, liberating humanity from work and developing technologies that expand our freedoms. This new edition includes a new chapter where they respond to their various critics.


Feudal Capitalism and the Innovation Economy

Feudal Capitalism and the Innovation Economy

Author: Jon-Arild Johannessen

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-06-05

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1000886239

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In feudal society, it was the few at the top who laid the ground for what was produced, how it was produced and how it was distributed. Freedom was restricted, and people were kept in their place by institutional structures. In capitalism, the focus is on free markets, free trade, and a personal freedom, where self-interest is assumed to lead to progress for the collective good. In today’s world, there is a move towards algorithmic capitalism at the micro-level, platform capitalism at the meso-level, and feudal capitalism at the macro-level. This is the new and innovative concept developed in this book. The author argues that feudal capitalism is distinct but linked to the innovation economy, and represents an interconnection between the organization of feudal society and central aspects of capitalism. Additionally, he asserts that the balance between feudal capitalism and a reinvented, sustainable capitalism based on the innovation economy, can help restore the moral compass lost in the evolution of global capitalism. The key argument of the book is that even if we see a development towards feudal capitalism, a more just and moral capitalism can be restored through various social mechanisms such as changes in the institutional framework, the development of a balanced form of globalization and re-establishing social cohesion and equality of opportunity. Further, the book offers policy interventions to support this idea. The book will find an audience among scholars and researchers of political economy, political theory, economic history, management, AI and ethics, philosophy and automation, inequality and equality of opportunity


Stakeholder Capitalism

Stakeholder Capitalism

Author: Klaus Schwab

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2021-01-27

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 1119756138

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Reimagining our global economy so it becomes more sustainable and prosperous for all Our global economic system is broken. But we can replace the current picture of global upheaval, unsustainability, and uncertainty with one of an economy that works for all people, and the planet. First, we must eliminate rising income inequality within societies where productivity and wage growth has slowed. Second, we must reduce the dampening effect of monopoly market power wielded by large corporations on innovation and productivity gains. And finally, the short-sighted exploitation of natural resources that is corroding the environment and affecting the lives of many for the worse must end. The debate over the causes of the broken economy—laissez-faire government, poorly managed globalization, the rise of technology in favor of the few, or yet another reason—is wide open. Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy that Works for Progress, People and Planet argues convincingly that if we don't start with recognizing the true shape of our problems, our current system will continue to fail us. To help us see our challenges more clearly, Schwab—the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum—looks for the real causes of our system's shortcomings, and for solutions in best practices from around the world in places as diverse as China, Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Singapore. And in doing so, Schwab finds emerging examples of new ways of doing things that provide grounds for hope, including: Individual agency: how countries and policies can make a difference against large external forces A clearly defined social contract: agreement on shared values and goals allows government, business, and individuals to produce the most optimal outcomes Planning for future generations: short-sighted presentism harms our shared future, and that of those yet to be born Better measures of economic success: move beyond a myopic focus on GDP to more complete, human-scaled measures of societal flourishing By accurately describing our real situation, Stakeholder Capitalism is able to pinpoint achievable ways to deal with our problems. Chapter by chapter, Professor Schwab shows us that there are ways for everyone at all levels of society to reshape the broken pieces of the global economy and—country by country, company by company, and citizen by citizen—glue them back together in a way that benefits us all.


Artificial Intelligence, Automation and the Future of Competence at Work

Artificial Intelligence, Automation and the Future of Competence at Work

Author: Jon-Arild Johannessen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-12-07

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 1000283569

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Artificial intelligence and the autonomous robots of the Fourth Industrial Revolution will render certain jobs and competences obsolete but will also create new roles, which in turn require new sets of skills. They will also transform how we produce, distribute and consume, as well as how we think. Rather than a linear understanding of evolutionary processes, we will develop a more interactive and circular interpretation. This book offers a unique and holistic perspective on the future of work in the context of industry 4.0. It discusses the globalization of capital markets, how artificial intelligence can help organizations to be more competitive and the new role of leadership in this technological landscape. The author argues that there are four categories of competences, which will be required in order to maintain the relevance of human skills and expertise in the innovation economy. The new jobs that come into being will lend themselves to a particular set of skills. General competences will be necessary for roles involving the 4Cs of communication, creativity, collaboration and change. Specific or STEM competences will be called for across the science, technology, engineering and mathematics sectors. Human competences will lend themselves to positions comprising the SELC framework of social, emotional, leadership and cultural skills. Critical or REVE competences will be in demand for roles embracing reflection, ethics, values and the environment. The book provides a human-centric view of the current technological advancements of artificial intelligence and robotics and offers a positive outlook for human actors seeking continued relevance. It will appeal to scholars and students of the innovation economy, the knowledge society and the coming Fourth Industrial Revolution.


Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism

Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism

Author: David Harvey

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 019936026X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

David Harvey examines the foundational contradictions of capital, and reveals the fatal contradictions that are now inexorably leading to its end


Evil Geniuses

Evil Geniuses

Author: Kurt Andersen

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2020-08-11

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 1984801368

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • When did America give up on fairness? The author of Fantasyland tells the epic history of how America decided that big business gets whatever it wants, only the rich get richer, and nothing should ever change—and charts a way back to the future. “Essential, absorbing . . . a graceful, authoritative guide . . . a radicalized moderate’s moderate case for radical change.”—The New York Times Book Review During the twentieth century, America managed to make its economic and social systems both more and more fair and more and more prosperous. A huge, secure, and contented middle class emerged. All boats rose together. But then the New Deal gave way to the Raw Deal. Beginning in the early 1970s, by means of a long war conceived of and executed by a confederacy of big business CEOs, the superrich, and right-wing zealots, the rules and norms that made the American middle class possible were undermined and dismantled. The clock was turned back on a century of economic progress, making greed good, workers powerless, and the market all-powerful while weaponizing nostalgia, lifting up an oligarchy that served only its own interests, and leaving the huge majority of Americans with dwindling economic prospects and hope. Why and how did America take such a wrong turn? In this deeply researched and brilliantly woven cultural, economic, and political chronicle, Kurt Andersen offers a fresh, provocative, and eye-opening history of America’s undoing, naming names, showing receipts, and unsparingly assigning blame—to the radical right in economics and the law, the high priests of high finance, a complacent and complicit Establishment, and liberal “useful idiots,” among whom he includes himself. Only a writer with Andersen’s crackling energy, deep insight, and ability to connect disparate dots and see complex systems with clarity could make such a book both intellectually formidable and vastly entertaining. And only a writer of Andersen’s vision could reckon with our current high-stakes inflection point, and show the way out of this man-made disaster.


How Will Capitalism End?

How Will Capitalism End?

Author: Wolfgang Streeck

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2016-11-01

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 1784784028

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The provocative political thinker asks if it will be with a bang or a whimper In How Will Capitalism End? the acclaimed analyst of contemporary politics and economics Wolfgang Streeck argues that capitalism is now in a critical condition. Growth is giving way to secular stagnation; inequality is leading to instability; and confidence in the capitalist money economy has all but evaporated. Capitalism’s shotgun marriage with democracy since 1945 is breaking up as the regulatory institutions restraining its advance have collapsed, and after the final victory of capitalism over its enemies no political agency capable of rebuilding them is in sight. The capitalist system is stricken with at least five worsening disorders for which no cure is at hand: declining growth, oligarchy, starvation of the public sphere, corruption and international anarchy. In this arresting book Wolfgang Streeck asks whether we are witnessing a long and painful period of cumulative decay: of intensifying frictions, of fragility and uncertainty, and of a steady succession of “normal accidents.”