This is the 12th in a series introducing the book Redeeming Capitalism by Ken Barnes. You can pick up the start of this series here. See the chart here for the context of EPOCH in the major historic forms of capitalism.
“Concerns about globalization and the environment were not of concern to people during the days of traditional capitalism. Economic activity was largely agrarian, as shown by Adam Smith's emphasis on the primacy of the country over the city in Wealth of Nations.
Not until the Industrial Revolution was in full swing did modern capitalism take shape, and with it the social concerns addressed by Karl Marx and others. While modern capitalism was about goods and services, the emphasis was very much on the former, and wealth was generally created by industrialists who used technology to magnify the division of labor to heights unimagined by Adam Smith.
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Post-modern capitalism, though, is driven neither by agriculture nor industry; it is driven by information.
The information economy is a curious thing because information itself has no intrinsic value. Information is merely data and has value only once it has been applied to some other use. The various uses of information are numerous, and the information economy produces genuine wealth across a wide range of sectors, including product design, manufacturing, marketing, telecommunications, retail, and, of course, financial services.
The information economy also has produced wild speculation about its unlimited potential, resulting in the boom and bust of the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s, but overall the pros have far outweighed the cons. Still, information in the wrong hands is a dangerous thing, and information also must be subject to ethical constraint.
Information is powerful, and the tools we have designed to give virtually everyone access to it--unfiltered and unverified--pose the risk that it, too, will be weaponized, as appears to have been the case with Russia's involvement in the 2016 US presidential elections. How we handle information, who has access to it, how it may be disseminated, who is responsible for its accuracy, and who owns it are all questions that have not been adequately addressed, even though they pose serious ethical questions.
The unintended consequences of otherwise benevolent applications of information technology could have potentially devastating effects on the economy and society as a whole, including the widespread use of both artificial intelligence (Al) and robotics. Some estimates claim up to 40 percent of jobs currently performed by people may be made obsolete by robots with the ability to think (that is, process data, consider alternative responses, and act accordingly) by the year 2030. These are not just menial tasks.
The entire transport sector could become obsolete; manufacturing and order fulfillment could become totally automated, as could food services, financial services, and even medical services. Why would a person see a doctor, who is as prone to error as any other professional, for a medical diagnosis when a thinking computer, accessed from the comfort of home, will be able to process all of one's medical data in seconds and make a diagnosis that is 99 percent accurate?
Virtuous capitalism is not only an option but also a complete necessity for an information-based economy to become an interconnected economy. In such an economy, the ramifications of the changes about to affect us must involve thought-leaders and policy-makers from all related disciplines who take a common-good focus and operate in an open and transparent manner.
Virtuous capitalism will not function in silos. The problems facing us are too great and too important to be left to the technicians alone. If we are going to navigate the waters of economic uncertainty more effectively than our forbearers handled the Industrial Revolution, ethicists, religious leaders, and philosophers will also need a place at the table of economics.” (Barnes, Redeeming Capitalism, p. 202-4) (Emphasis throughout is ours.)
We at BetterCapitalism.org are fond of the phrase, “Questions are the engines of thought and action.” From that posture, we invite you to give thought to a few of our questions:
Do you think an epoch – a shift in history and new era – of virtuous capitalism is possible? If not, why not?
As our post-modern capitalism is driven by information, do you agree that information should be subject to ethical constraint?
“Buyer beware” is a standard applicable to marketplace products one can test and verify. Can the same standard be applied to marketplace information one may not be able to test and verify? If so, how?
Do you see any industry or government efforts toward ethical constraints of information?
How might these questions prod you to re-think your perspective of capitalism? How might these questions prod you to make different marketplace decisions?
Stay tuned for future excerpts of Redeeming Capitalism. Or. Why wait for us? Buy and read a copy for yourself now.
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