Newmedia on Mon, 14 May 2012 02:57:31 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> Capitalism is FINISHED -- As a Result of the Internet! (was Another insult . . ) |
Jon: >>The *effect* of digital media is to directly undermine "conspicuous >>consumption" which REQUIRED mass-media to prop it up. It's OVER!! > Interesting point, but any evidence for it? Sure -- the inability of any of the "developed" economies to grow. For some "unexplained" reason -- which is not simply because people are "poor" or have no "disposable income" or "are worried about the future" -- *demand* just isn't there to re-energize the "treadmill" required to grow the GDP. Furthermore, the widely understood "mechanism" used to generate demand in excess of *needs* -- in particular, the psychological impact of mass-market advertising -- has dramatically faded in its effectiveness and the presumed "replacement" of *targeted* advertising has failed to live up to expectations (as widely understood by those in this business.) In addition, those who have been "polling" US consumers about their attitudes over the past 20+ years, such as DYG Inc., have noticed a change that has grown over the past decade -- across all "demographics" and "cohorts" -- that shows a significant shift away from "quantity" to "quality" of life. LESS-is-MORE began to be a very popular theme in these polls started around 2002 and increasing annually since then. The fact that many groups still consume beyond their baseline needs is obvious but the overall trend is unmistakable from the data I have seen. > so what are the Chinese doing? buying more coal? > displacing poorer people for dams, buying palaces > for their rich in China and overseas? Exactly! Which is precisely what you *should* want them to do as they go through a very rapid industrialization! At the same time, they are on track to dominate the "clean" energy alternatives to coal and, when/if fusion energy becomes a reality, they will likely dominate that business as well. Roughly 300 MILLION Chinese will be added to the middle class over the next 10+ years -- which is only a part of the BILLION+ who will go through this transition globally. This is a *remarkable* achievement! What the Chinese have "figured out" is that the DEVELOPED economies have already stopped growing our "needless" consumption and that they have adjusted their own goals and strategies accordingly. Furthermore, some understand that digital technologies are driving this process. Meanwhile, *we* seem to pretend that nothing fundamental has happened. Any ideas about why we are so *stupid* about our own society and its culture? Mark Stahlman Brooklyn NY # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org