Capitalism and Post-capitalism: the new inside the old

Abstract

The text below presents a summary of key points from the book Post-Capitalism: A Guide to Our Future, by Paul Mason. The author intends to demonstrate that, contrary to what the Marxist tradition argues, there are already post-capitalist ways in development within the capital system. The advent of socialism would not depend on the control of the apparatus of domination to establish itself. In particular, he argues that this emerged from the moment that information technologies have gained relevant weight in the economic circuits of capitalism, since they favour the emergence of mechanisms incompatible with the market economy, such as labor and shared goods, non-proprietary products and organizations whose activities operate on cooperative digital networks. This operating logic, however, could only be understood in its complexity through the Law of Value defended by Marx. Classical political economy would be unable to explain the transformations in progress, since it presupposes commodities that cannot be priced. Mason also questions the current capacity of the "proletariat" to carry out revolutionary processes, giving such a role to "each individual on earth" or to "networked humanity".