Post-Capitalism: Rise of the Collaborative Commons

Economists such as Keynes have long been aware that the most optimally efficient state of capitalism is at near zero marginal cost. Through the inherent competitive drive for lower costs and increased productivity and efficiencies, near zero marginal cost is an inevitability under capitalist defined principles. When the cost of producing an additional good or service is nearly zero, products become available at next to no cost, profits evaporate and the exchange of property in markets shuts down. Though this state represents the ultimate triumph of capitalism, it also marks its obsolescence and passage from the world stage.

As goods and services become more freely available, the sun will begin to set on the capitalist era. Capitalism is designed to manage resources within a closed system of scarcity, and it is thoroughly ineffective at organizing the economic life of a society in which access is valued over ownership, transparency over privacy, and collaborative co-creation over competition. The foundational principals and philosophies upon which the capitalist system is based — private property, wage labor, profit-driven competition and debt-based finance — are no longer relevant under such conditions. Empowered and driven by recent technological innovations, a new economic system is now emerging that is significantly better suited for organizing a society characterized by sustainable abundance rather than scarcity.

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