Are WordPress writers, YouTube musicians & Instagram photographers the new generation of starving artists or the pioneers of a new economic system? As some of you already know, I’m completing some research on the whether blogging devalues the written word[1]. However, I’ve come across an interesting article[2] that suggests that they might instead be the first ‘chosen few’ onto the proverbial Arc as it were, while capitalism is swept away in the flood leaving the earth cleansed.
Hyperbole aside though, there is a real possibility that the world might abandon the capitalist model in favour of ‘free’. We’ve already seen that in terms of music, film, art and writing monetary gain is dying. We live in an age where information & art are nose-diving towards a price tag of €0.00. This carries countless advantages & indeed disadvantages explored at length elsewhere – and which I shall be adding to at a later date.
However, what is proposed by this new theory is that these shifts are the canary in the capitalist mine-shaft and soon physical products will be following suit driving costs downwards using near-zero marginal cost. Are we soon to live in a world where money is no longer the God? Where capital aspirations have been turned on their head? Where products and services shed their monetary shackles? I don’t claim to be an economist or even somebody that can interpret economic trends on the required scale. However, the possibility of a new – more communal & market-based – economic model that strives to reach ‘free’ is definitely something that I believe is worth keeping an eye on. It also adds an interesting perspective to my research[3].
[1] If any authors out there are interested here’s a link to the survey: https://es.surveymonkey.com/s/NLNQGQK
[2] http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/31/capitalism-age-of-free-internet-of-things-economic-shift
[3] For more information see: https://acoleary.com/2014/03/26/the-cost-of-the-typed-word/
Scribblings and Broken Glass 