The Rise of Anti-Capitalism, Essay Example

In Jeffrey Rifkinmarch’s piece “The Rise of Anti-Capitalism”, the author discusses some of the radical changes which are occurring in contemporary society, changes which are above all engendered by the continued reduction of marginal costs, with the potential of the latter to eventually reach what the author terms “zero level.” This will clearly have a profound effect on capitalism, in so far as the production as well as purchasing of goods, as the author states, will essentially be free. In short, the concept of profit that is at the center of capitalism now becomes irrelevant in this scenario.

Rifkinmarch’s text is compellingly argued: if marginal costs of production reach zero, the current capitalist model will no longer be adequate. Certainly, this will have clear benefits for many. For example, individuals will be able to live a more fulfilling life, to the extent that they now can produce their own goods and perhaps trade them with others in a barter style of economy. Furthermore, the class distinctions that are at the center of the capitalist model will no longer be operative and effective.

The only unanswered question from Rifkinmarch’s text is perhaps the following: to what extent will those who currently hold economic hegemony in the globalized capitalist neoliberal order allow this radical change to happen? What will be their strategies to prevent these changes, in so far as they mean the concomitant loss of their source of social power? Some would argue that Rifkinmarch’s article is too utopian, to the extent that he posits this new world of zero production cost. However, the arguments he gives about the Internet and other technologies shows that this is not a fantasy. The utopian argument, nevertheless, remains relevant to the extent that one can easily conceive of various measures, on the levels of multi-national corporations and their influences on governments, that is to say, the entire structure of the social economy, which will attempt to pacify the effect of this new “common” space.