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Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future Hardcover – February 9, 2016

by Paul Mason (Author)

4.3 1,171 ratings

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We know that our world is undergoing seismic change―but how can we emerge from the crisis a fairer, more equal society?

Over the past two centuries or so, capitalism has undergone profound changes―economic cycles that veer from boom to bust―from which it has always emerged transformed and strengthened. Surveying this turbulent history, Paul Mason’s Postcapitalism argues that we are on the brink of a change so big and so profound that this time capitalism itself, the immensely complex system within which entire societies function, will mutate into something wholly new.

At the heart of this change is information technology, a revolution that is driven by capitalism but, with its tendency to push the value of much of what we make toward zero, has the potential to destroy an economy based on markets, wages, and private ownership. Almost unnoticed, in the niches and hollows of the market system, swaths of economic life are beginning to move to a different rhythm. Vast numbers of people are changing how they behave and live, in ways contrary to the current system of state-backed corporate capitalism. And as the terrain changes, new paths open.

In this bold and prophetic book, Mason shows how, from the ashes of the crisis, we have the chance to create a more socially just and sustainable economy. Although the dangers ahead are profound, he argues that there is cause for hope. This is the first time in human history in which, equipped with an understanding of what is happening around us, we can predict and shape the future.

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“Even readers not quite persuaded will appreciate Mason's readable, reportorial style, his use of a wide range of economists, business gurus, and economic thinkers to help support his thesis, and his deft treatment of sometimes-difficult economic theories . . . A radical diagnosis and a bold prognostication bound to energize progressives.” ―Kirkus Reviews

“[Postcapitalism]'s vision for the future . . . is absorbing and provocative.” ―Publishers Weekly

“Mason weaves together varied intellectual threads to produce a fascinating set of ideas . . . The thesis about ‘postcapitalism’ deserves a wide readership among right and left alike . . . Politicians of all stripes should take note. And so should the people who vote for them.” ―Gillian Tett, Financial Times

“Deeply engaging . . . [Mason] is asking the most interesting questions, unafraid of where they might lead. What’s more, he writes with freshness and insight on almost every page . . . I can’t remember the last book I read that managed to carve its way through the forest of political and economic ideas with such brio . . . As a spark to the imagination, with frequent x-ray flashes of insight into the way we live now, it is hard to beat. In that sense, Mason is a worthy successor to Marx.” ―David Runciman, The Guardian

“Ecological crisis signals the death knell for an economic system that was already profoundly failing us, as Paul Mason mercilessly illustrates in these pages. Building on a remarkable career's worth of reporting on the frontlines of global capitalism and worker resistance, this book is an original, engaging, and bracingly-articulated vision of real alternatives. It is sure to many spark vigorous debates, and they are precisely the ones we should be having.” ―Naomi Klein

“After postmodernism and all other fashionable post-trends, Mason fearlessly confronts the only true post-, postcapitalism. While we can see all around us ominous signs of the impasses of global capitalism, it is perhaps more than ever difficult to imagine a feasible alternative to it. How are we to deal with this frustrating situation? Although Mason's book is irresistibly readable, this clarity should not deceive us: it is a book which compels us to think!” ―Slavoj Žižek

About the Author

Paul Mason was the award-winning economics editor of Channel 4 News. His books include Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed and Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions. He writes for The Guardian and the New Statesman, among other publications.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux (February 9, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0374235546
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0374235543
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.39 x 1.22 x 9.35 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,470,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #526 in Business Planning & Forecasting (Books)
- #1,266 in International Economics (Books)
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4.3 1,171 ratings

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Customers find the book provides insightful and important thinking on the subject. They describe it as a good, well-written read with interesting ideas worth serious discussion. However, opinions differ on its readability, practicality, and practicality. Some find it well-written and a must-read for those not afraid of challenges of the future, while others find it incoherent, shallow, and biased.

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31 customers mention "Insight"27 positive4 negative

Customers find the book provides insightful and important thinking about the future. They find it a good treatise on the subject, with interesting ideas worthy of serious debate. The book has a clear and coherent train of thought that presents some interesting ideas. It provides a way of going forward and is inspiring.

"...Because of the unprecedented availability of free information on the internet, people are able to form artisanal local businesses, publish e-books,..." Read more

"...book nonetheless contains much to reckon with and is refreshingly eclectic in a spread of ideas which may or may not amount to confirmation of thesis..." Read more

"An exciting review of current Economics, with a subtle humanistic approach. It offers a route to future Utopia with lots of disruption in between...." Read more

"...The history is well written and interesting, but quite an odd departure in the middle of the book...." Read more

32 customers mention "Readability"21 positive11 negative

Customers have mixed views about the book's readability. Some find it well-written and worth reading, while others find it incoherent, shallow, and difficult to understand.

"“It hooked me at the first page!” “Ripped from the headlines!” “I couldn’t put it down!” Hey wait a minute...." Read more

"...Must read for all people that are not afraid of the challenges of the future and for those who want to figure out where are we currently." Read more

"...It's a bit of a tough book to read, not because it's written in a challenging way (Mason is a journalist, not an economist), but because it's..." Read more

"...Then (much like a flashback in a film) enjoy this well researched and well written book that shook me to my very core...." Read more

5 customers mention "Practicality"3 positive2 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's practicality. Some find it pessimistic and optimistic, with a refreshingly eclectic approach. Others feel it lacks practicality and logic.

"...The book nonetheless contains much to reckon with and is refreshingly eclectic in a spread of ideas which may or may not amount to confirmation of..." Read more

"...of the final idea which is not very well thought through and not practical. The climax is somewhat disappointing." Read more

"...And, interestingly, this is possibly the most pessimistic and optimistic book I know of... at the same time...." Read more

"Good vision but too inlogic..." Read more

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Veronica Dale
"Ripped from the headlines!"
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2016
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“It hooked me at the first page!” “Ripped from the headlines!” “I couldn’t put it down!”
Hey wait a minute. Isn’t this supposed to be a review of an economics book? It is, and for me all those exclamations are true. In spite of the fact that I usually think economics is opaque and boring, I found this book to be positively riveting.

Like a lot of people, I’m worried about what’s going on in today’s world. The Arab Spring never bloomed; Occupy Wall Street petered out; the upcoming US election seems mired in chaos. We’re supposed to have recovered from the 2008 recession, but most new jobs can’t pay the bills. Every year breaks a record for world’s hottest, but certain political and corporate leaders still deny the existence of man-made climate change. Our population is getting older, poorer, and deeper in debt. What to do about the rising number of immigrants threatens many nations. So when Diane Rehm interviewed Paul Mason about his book, I decided to buy it. I wanted to hear more about his take on why we’re in this situation and what we can do about it.

Mason begins by reviewing humankind’s turbulent economic history: feudalism, industrial capitalism, the rise and destruction of the labor movement, the booms and busts of neoliberalism, the phenomenon of today’s “precariat.” These are the stressed-out people forced to work two jobs, who have lost or will never get a pension, who are acutely aware of how monopolies, outsourcing, or their company moving overseas make his or her job extremely precarious. Many workers are expected to be “at work” on their smartphones even when traveling or at home, and—even worse—are forced to “live the dream of the firm they work for.” In spite of our rising productivity, it’s now clear that actual wages are in decline, except for the 1%.

Mason then takes a look at how capitalism evolved in the last 200 years. It was mind-expanding for me to see how economic systems evolve and change just like human beings do. Today’s capitalism, the author points out, is in its fifth great wave. It’s trembling on the edge of becoming something new: postcapitalism.

Why is this happening? The answer, basically, is because our planet has to meet several great challenges it never faced before: climate change, ageing, the information network, and massive immigration. Business as usual won’t be able to meet these challenges.

So what will? What does this new mutation of capitalism look like? Mason says we’re already seeing it through models like the non-profit Wikipedia, Creative Commons, and Open Source. These share a communal nature, “free to use, but impossible to grab, own, and exploit.” Because of the unprecedented availability of free information on the internet, people are able to form artisanal local businesses, publish e-books, join global communities, share videos, get the equivalent of a free college degree. Information, one of the most valuable commodities available to human beings, isn’t scare anymore, but free to all.

Like any great novel, this book builds and builds into an explosive climax. Using the nitty-gritty facts of history and economics, Mason reveals what postcapitalism can mean to us and our future.

There’s tons more in in this book that I can’t even begin to deal with here. Whenever I read a book I think I’m going to review, I jot down notes: what grabs me, what new thing I learn, how it coincides with what I’ve noticed in the world and why it bothers me or gives me hope. For this book, I took six pages of notes. It’s hard to review a book in which you struggle to assimilate a new idea when, on the next page, the author is already using the new idea as the foundation for yet another new idea.

This book isn’t an easy read, but boy is it an exhilarating ride! At the end—when we finally get the answer to the question “who’s going to save us?”—I actually yelled Yay!
--review by Veronica Dale, author of Blood Seed,

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John C. Landon
Inherent economic dynamics versus the decision/choice to create a new postcapitalism
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2016
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The issue of postcapitalism has to be seen from two angles: the inherent dynamic, if any, of a system moving beyond itself, and the choice/decision of those in the system to change or abolish it completely. In the final analysis it is a speculative guess that the current system stuck in its neo-liberal dystopia has the seeds for a transition to something else. We should remain wary of such claims because while they can offer insights into the dynamics of capitalism we can more safely predict that if the system tends to transcend itself those who stand to profit will reestablish it.
The book nonetheless contains much to reckon with and is refreshingly eclectic in a spread of ideas which may or may not amount to confirmation of thesis. At the end however we seem to return to postcapitalism done the old fashioned way, a revolution, which is a choice/decision to operate not according to economic deterministic logic, but the logic of values set in advance to create a system where people are not subjected to the oblivion chosen for them by gangs of thugs called 'capitalists', and their organ grinder's monkey, the economist.
Economists specialize in looking past values to what a system does, and how it will undergo noble intentions, but we are arriving at the point where the whole game has to perform according to those values or be judged obsolete. We have burnt out a whole planet in the name of capitalism's 'successes', but must notice that after all of that the system now trends toward the abolition of middle classes. To say nothing of the imminent climate crisis.
Still, the cogency of the author's many speculative 'wild goose chases' might be useful for leftists if they can hope to ride the momentum of the system itself toward the phase of 'post...'.

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PULINC
Superb every way!
Reviewed in India on March 2, 2019
Verified Purchase
About Paul Mason's POSTCAPITALISM: Everything about this purchase and the product proved to be SUPERB. I mean the price, delivery time and the pleasure of reading possibly a most engrossing account of our end-experience with Capitalism; loads of cautionary messages for the future! Have to thank, thank Mason

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Ozone
Great background with difficult---but achievable---prescriptions for a modern, just world.
Reviewed in Canada on January 23, 2017
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The author provides a deep background to the current state of Western economic thinking and many counterpoints to mainstream thought.

He builds on the historical background, especially examining Kondratieff waves and cycles in capitalism, to examine the effects of neoliberalism on our current situation, the current transition to "info-capitalism", and finally concludes with a blueprint for fostering a transition to post-capitalism.

The argument for post-capitalism is strengthened by his examination of exogenous shocks to the system which have been identified by mainstream economic thinkers, including aging populations, pension crises, migration, and the effects of unmitigated climate change on the economy.

As a physicist and engineer, with training in system dynamics modeling, atmospheric physics, and decision analysis, I found his blueprint for change both compelling and challenging. As a "dyed-in-the-wool" Canadian conservative, I found his historic exposition of the labour movement through the centuries, and his examination of the history of socialism---both its successes and failures---equally compelling.

There is much to be learned and pondered upon here if one is willing to set aside one's dogma (as I tried my best to do!), and approach this book with an open mind and inclusive view of what the economic future of humanity could be---if we put our minds and hands to it.

As a Canadian I honestly find the blueprint and his postcard/future-vision of post-capitalism to be the highest expression of my Nation's values. This book made me think hard about changing my mind on a number of topics.

Highly recommended and thought-provoking.

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Manambo
価格がゼロに向かう世界に
Reviewed in Japan on December 4, 2016
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価格がゼロに向かう世界ー ITの急激な進化は、市場経済のメカニズムが機能するための前提条件を壊していく。人間の社会は、この文明の変化と、地球温暖化、人口増加と高齢化、移民の急増などの外部ショックを乗り越えて持続して行けるのだろうか。そんな壮大な問いに対する秩序だった解答は望むべくもないが、具体的な破局が容易に想像できるようになってしまった今、それを現実にしないために何をすべきかという差し迫った反実仮想の材料を本書は提供している。ピケティの『20世紀の資本』に飽き足らない人におすすめ。

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Martín del Río
Un intento valiente de afrontar los problemas del futuro inmediato
Reviewed in Spain on August 30, 2016
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Las cuestiones de teoría económica pueden ser lo más difícil de entender para los no economistas. Aun así, la argumentación general se sigue bien y el libro está escrito de manera apasionante. Entre lo más entretenido, las aproximaciones a diferentes personajes y acontecimientos poco conocidos de la historia del capitalismo. Lo mejor, la valentía a la hora de diagnosticar y ofrecer vías de solución a los graves problemas que afrontamos. También muy positiva la actitud abierta y poco dogmática del autor. Su perspectiva marxista no le impide apreciar las virtudes de otros sistemas ni criticar ferozmente la dogmática marxista que dio lugar a los crímenes soviéticos. Un libro exigente, pero ameno y enriquecedor.

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Stephen Shellard
A Fine and Important Book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 5, 2016
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The themes of this book are important and timely; however, whilst I grasped the basic ideas fairly easily, sections of the book are challenging; so a great read it may be, but not at every point a page turner.

Before summarising and commenting on some of the main ideas it is important to point out that the book offers an optimistic vision of a post capitalist future but one which is based on a gloomy, even apocalyptic analysis of the current state of the capitalist economy. Without this analysis the subsequent discussion of transition to post capitalism makes little sense and so it is necessarily the starting point of this summary.

Capitalism has, since its beginnings, followed 50 year cycles of growth and decline, each cycle of decline being associated with a systemic crisis which has threatened to fulfil the Marxist prophecy of a new and more enlightened system delivering fairness to all.

Contrary, however, to the Marxist view, capitalism has proven protean in its ability, following one of its recurrent crises, to reinvent itself with a plausible offer of prosperity that can reach all parts of society. Neoliberal economists have increasingly come to believe in their ability to manage the system and to bring it out of recession by the application of monetary policies. The fall of the Soviet Union and the Berlin wall, from this perspective, signalled an apparently decisive blow to the Marxist view of historical change; as the Berlin Wall fell, the capitalist economies were demonstrating an astonishing capacity for productivity and innovation.

Paul Mason associates each 50 year cycle of capitalism with the emergence of a new technological paradigm. So, from 1798 to 1848 we see “The first long cycle….The factory system, steam powered machinery and canals; from 1848 to the mid 1890s is the second long cycle with “Railways, the telegraph, ocean-going steamers, stable currencies and machine produced machinery.” The third long cycle is from 1890s to 1945 and is driven by “heavy industry, electrical engineering, the telephone, scientific management and mass production.” The fourth cycle runs from the 1940s to 2008 and is driven by the development of transistors, synthetic materials, mass consumer goods, factory automation, nuclear power and automatic calculation.” Overlapping the conclusion of this fourth cycle of capitalism “the basic elements of the fifth long cycle appear…..network technology, mobile communications, a truly global marketplace and information goods.” Mason concludes however that this cycle has stalled and attributes this stalling to “neoliberalism and something to do with the technology itself.”

In the first part of each cycle, wages have typically been relatively high and the employment offer good. However as the development of the technology matures, so competition increases, and for businesses to survive they are obliged to increase pressures on their workforce, demanding increased productivity, squeezing wages, introducing more mechanised production, or outsourcing production to places where employment costs are lower. The result: lower wages and higher unemployment.

So what of our current situation? Why is the emergence of “network technology, mobile communications, a truly global marketplace and information goods” unable to supercharge the 5th cycle of capitalism. Paul Mason argues that the impact of these technologies has been exactly opposite; information has become the most important commodity and to a large extent this is being exchanged and shared free of charge. This information has released an enormous productive potential but one which capitalism is struggling to exploit in that it tends towards goods which are free of charge or can be produced very cheaply and with very little labour. The consequence is a production process which shows no potential to develop and sustain large numbers of well paid jobs even at the dawn of this fifth cycle, the very stage at which previous experience suggests this should be happening. The world economy consequently is failing to grow its way out of the financial crisis of 2008 and we are faced with enormous and developing challenges on a number of fronts, without the evident willingness in many cases to even accept that these challenges exist or are imminent.

Apart from the challenges presented by a stagnating economy Paul Mason also addresses the challenge of climate change, accepted by many as a future threat, though not always understood as an important current factor behind the migration with which the developed world is currently struggling to come to terms.

Similarly Mason identifies a “demographic time bomb” as a factor which will inevitably lead to further movements of people on a massive scale unless there is constructive political and economic change within those parts of the world where the population is growing most rapidly.

Mason’s further predictions in relation to our own financial system are equally apocalyptic. Anyone who has savings will be aware that zero interest rates, and quantitative easing are eroding the value of such assets. Pension funds are, for those nearing retirement, in a particularly concerning state. Mason writes: “In the aftermath of the crash, the typical big pension fund .... lends more than 55% of it money to governments in the form of bonds, which under quantitative easing pay zero or negative interest….Though the picture varies from one country to the next - with some smaller developed countries such as Norway extremely well provided for - the global situation is bleak; either the retired elderly must live on much less, or the financial system must deliver spectacular returns.”

According to this extremely persuasive analysis, capitalism is on borrowed time. This is not a denial of the enormous achievement of the capitalist system in creating the phenomenal productive resources which are now available to humankind; however if capitalism needs to grow economically in order to survive and shows no capacity to do so, then it can no longer sustain the illusion that it will be able to provide for the needs of an entire society.

As someone said on the radio only this morning: “every crisis is also an opportunity”, and Paul Mason offers us the opportunity of transitioning to a post-capitalist society which is better and fairer than capitalism. There is no seizure of power required for this transition; rather, the instruments created by the capitalist system are already beginning to develop the structures which will form the basis of this new society. The prime examples offered by Paul Mason are Wikipedia and Linux. These are indeed extraordinary collaborative achievements; but can this model of internet based cooperation successfully be the basis of an entire new society?

Marx, in a well known paragraph from his preface to the Critique of Political Economy says something which resonates with this possibility:

“No social order ever perishes before all the productive forces for which there is room in it have developed; and new, higher relations of production never appear before the material conditions of their existence have matured in the womb of the old society itself. Therefore mankind always sets itself only such tasks as it can solve; since, looking at the matter more closely, it will always be found that the task itself arises only when the material conditions of its solution already exist or are at least in the process of formation.”

Internet based collaboration, however, serves the interests of those who wish to sustain the capitalist system as well as those who may wish to supersede capitalism, or indeed those, such as Isis, who may wish to destroy it; the benign post capitalist future envisioned by Paul Mason is by no means a forgone conclusion and dis-topic outcomes seem every bit as possible, perhaps indeed more possible. And yet I think it reasonable to suggest that all this collaborative activity, whether for good or ill, by its very nature, bends towards a fairer and more inclusive society. In small ways millions of us are experiencing the manner in which the Internet frees our productive capacity. Whatever fix we may have got into there is almost certainly a you-tube video, created by an enthusiastic amateur, showing the way to solve the problem. E-bay offers an economic model of which even those in depressed circumstances may take advantage. These may be small examples, but if we multiply them many times, and if they continue to develop, then they are significant.

Paul Mason acknowledges that the process of change will be complex and impossible to predict in every detail. “What happens to the state?” he asks, for example. His answer is wide open with possibility:

“It probably gets less powerful over time - and in the end its functions are assumed by society. I’ve tried to make this a project usable both by people who see states as useful and those who don’t; you could model an anarchist version and a statist version and try them out. There is probably even a conservative version of post-capitalism, and good luck to it.”

Questions flood in at this point. What about law and order? How is justice to be dispensed? What will be the status of the armed forces? The anarchist notion of a fundamentally benign and spontaneous polity might just develop from an ordered and stable society; but the post capitalist project must be carried forward amidst war and competition for scarce resources and within this context states would appear to offer a necessary framework for stability.

For people to move forward with the optimism necessary for success, they surely need some sense of how such systems as education and healthcare will be made available; it is very hard to imagine that in this post capitalist future, the current state sponsored models of delivery can survive. Ivan Illich developed striking critiques of these institutions, which were a fashionable accessory of the left during the 1970’s, but then fell out of favour; they may be worth revisiting in this new context. Illich also had some interesting things to say about transportation. Ivan Illich

But this is a diversion from the main event. Irvine Welsh has said Paul Mason has written: “the most important book about our economy and society to be published in my lifetime.” My literary diet to date has not included a great deal of economics so I am unable to comment with authority on this, but what I can say is that the ideas in Post Capitalism - a Guide to our Future, are more important than Brexit; more important than keeping the Union together or fighting for Independence for your own corner of it; whatever your great political passion may be, the themes of this book are almost certainly more important.

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Top reviews from the United States

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5.0 out of 5 stars "Ripped from the headlines!"

4.0 out of 5 stars Inherent economic dynamics versus the decision/choice to create a new postcapitalism

Top reviews from other countries

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb every way!

5.0 out of 5 stars Great background with difficult---but achievable---prescriptions for a modern, just world.

5.0 out of 5 stars 価格がゼロに向かう世界に

5.0 out of 5 stars Un intento valiente de afrontar los problemas del futuro inmediato

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine and Important Book

"Ripped from the headlines!"

Inherent economic dynamics versus the decision/choice to create a new postcapitalism

Superb every way!

Great background with difficult---but achievable---prescriptions for a modern, just world.

価格がゼロに向かう世界に

Un intento valiente de afrontar los problemas del futuro inmediato

A Fine and Important Book