The End of Laissez-Faire Capitalism 2.0

This may seem boring and not very posthumanish; however, this year I’ve attempted to begin explaining, in compulsory blog-like intermittent sound-bite form, some of the reasons why the various architectures that will comprise a sustainable post-information-age, post-scarcity marketplace are absolutely Foundational Considerations for any sustainable posthumanish society.

The bottom line is that if we don’t have a healthy resource circulatory system, any posthumanish body politic is far more likely to wax anemic, tilting toward the dystopianish end of the scale.

If you think things are sounding a bit too -ishy, that’s because they ARE. So you are right, and the time for downplaying the significance of this year’s events with cute-ish suffixes has come to an abrupt end. It’s time to begin taking action to conceptualize and actualize practical modifications to the failed economic system that we are watching melt down, right before our very eyes.

One big risk in this post is assuming that this should matter greatly to a technoprogressive audience, to an audience for whom there is no need to further explain that posthuman and post-scarcity pretty much go hand-in-hand and that failure to solve either side of that fundamental equation will result in imbalances that mean a future that is Far Less Than Well as opposed to Better Than Well; at least from the perspective of the vast majority of participants in such a society.

I’m also suggesting that while many of us have likely been inspired by various flavors of utopianism with regard to distribution of resources, my own motivation springs from an interest in provoking the hard work of considering, crafting, and implementing truly pragmatic, potentially breakthrough experiments that can be tested, falsified, or validated in the real marketplace of human affairs and ideas.

And so to the subject matter at hand – the end of laissez-faire – today we’d suggest that when the 30 yr. bond market veterans begin chiming in like this, you know the chickens are coming home to roost; the kettle is a’ whistlin’; or pick your own cliche. “It’s happening.”

Today, SeekingAlpha further serves to advance something we’ve more-or-less been attempting to explain all this year: namely, the Massive Market Failures that have perpetrated entirely Unsustainable Resource Skews are reaching chronic proportions.

Capitalism 1.0 utterly crashed in 1929, necessitating Capitalism 2.0. Now, 2.0 is crashing and crashing hard. And this time, it’s Global. (Oh, Shut UP, Uncle Karl! Yes, you were right. Exactly right. We concede. You win. Now give it a rest!)

The collapse of this sub-prime mortgage house of cards marks the failure of version 2.0 of the illusory faux-egalitarian meritocracy euphemistically coined “Western Capitalism” and the Little Man Behind the curtain is now utterly exposed; and might I add, looking vastly more pitiful than even the dumpy and doofy Oz version.

So, I once again propose that it is high time to talk about organizing a Capitalism 3.0 Unconference. I surely can’t pull off such a feat on my own, but this community clearly can. I propose that it is time to seriously think about doing so.

Yes, we have some challenges before us. Between us and the refreshingly enlightened likes of Warren Buffet and the Gates Foundation, there lie in wait vast armies of brainwashed busy-body wannabe gazillionaires who would rather ride the Titanic down to Davy Jone’s Locker than let go of their false hopes of world domination. There are also a number of deeply influential cliques of existing VC gazillionaires who don’t care or don’t yet possess any intrinsic motivation to act. And of course, there are the usual technical and human behaviorial inertia roadbloacks.

So yeah, wait … never mind. It’ll be too hard. Forget I mentioned it. Everything will be just fine. Have a nice day. How’s the weather? Did you see the latest American Idol? Oh, I feel so much safer and more normal again. Phew, for a minute there I thought things might improve. That was a close call.