Peter Frase – Four Futures; Life After Capitalism Anonymous 14-09-26 12:19:01 No. 26289
In the book Four Futures; Life After Capitalism, Peter Frase maps out the materialist trajectory of post-capitalism and demonstrates that the end of wage labor is more likely to just kill us than to liberate us. Communism (Abundance + Equality) <The post-scarcity endgame. Wage labor is dead. But Frase correctly points out this doesnt end politics; it just shifts human conflict away from material survival and onto immaterial hierarchies like status, reputation, and social capital. Socialism (Scarcity + Equality) <The only historically viable socialist project right now. Not a post-work utopia but democratic, centralized economic planning, and massive state-directed labor to survive the climate bottleneck. Its shared sacrifice and ecological reconstruction, not infinite consumerism. Rentism (Abundance + Hierarchy) <Automation solves material production but the bourgeoisie preserves its class dominance by pivoting entirely to artificial scarcity. Capital accumulation is replaced by rent extraction. Once physical commodity production is fully automated, the ruling class simply monopolizes the underlying data, algorithms, and IP. You are no longer exploited for surplus value on a factory floor; you are bled dry by access fees and licensing just so you can exist. Exterminism (Scarcity + Hierarchy) <This is the most critical analytical blind spot on the Left. Under capitalism, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat have an antagonistic but symbiotic relationship. They actually need workers to produce value. But when mass automation makes the global working class economically obsolete and climate collapse restricts resource availability, that dependency ends. You are no longer an exploitable asset; you are a surplus population consuming scarce resources. The militarization of borders, local police, and autonomous drone warfare isn't just standard imperialism, it is the logistical beta-test for managing and eventually eliminating an obsolete lumpen-proletariat.
Anonymous 14-09-26 13:16:21 No. 26290
I don't know, man, there's lots of questionable assumptions here.
Anonymous 14-09-26 20:52:53 No. 26291
>>26290 You too are making assumptions
Anonymous 16-09-26 08:57:08 No. 26295
>>26290 Decommodified production doesnt magically erase human neurobiology. Its a well established fact that the human brain is structurally hardwired to seek social status.
You are confusing productive capacity with ecological limits. Yes we have enough factories and technology but what we dont have is infinite resources. The scarcity axis in this matrix isnt about whether we can manufacture enough stuff but instead its about the hard physical limits of this planet. This is why the socialist outcome requires strict rationing and centralized planning.
This is the entire premise of rentism scenario. Even if the ruling class doesnt need your labor anymore they still wants to maintain their class position. They will enforce this artificial scarcity via patents and copyright. People wouldnt work in factories but would still have to pay rent in order to have access to basic needs.
The system is literally engineered to survive this right now. The ruling class doesnt have to fear unorganized terrorism once they retreat into fortified enclaves guarded by autonomous drones while leaving the surplus population outside to live in slums. Gated communities but 9000x worse.
Flood