History of economic development on Earth.

Thank you for opening my eyes.
Specially coming from a socialist country.
I agree that, making small experiments plus technology, will help us understand the future of the economy. Like driving at night with better headlights.

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7 people found this helpful

Essential reading

If you are interested in understanding the present and near future this book is essential. Mason's conclusions are unconvincing but his analysis is brilliant. There is nothing earth shattering but the way various historical and contemporary political and economic threads are brought together is really helpful.

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6 people found this helpful

This will become a seminal text in the future.

Clearly thought out and rationally argued. A refreshing view from the left based on some fascinating sources.

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A fascinating perspective on economic history...

The historical aspect of this book with especially its critique of Marx and the direction Soviet Russia took was very interesting; some new stuff learned. In this regard it was quite a balanced book. As for a vision of the future it seemed somewhat naive and hopeful. The idea that software theoretically lasts forever for example was naive. It doesn't. The machines on which it runs die and their replacements often cannot run the older software at all. Software has the same legacy issues that most products have; in fact software is often more short lived than common household electrical appliances. It also comes with a maintenance cost due to security issues/bugs etc.

The idea that information is free is also flawed. Storing the information is massively expensive - Google's huge data centres are acknowledged in the book but somehow the cost of maintaining and replacing hardware, cabling and having the energy to run the servers does not get factored into the cost of information. Neither does the cost of accessing the information via data charges, ISP fees, standing charges (to maintain the cabling infrastructure etc.). This audio book is verbal information recorded as digital data - it was not free. The servers where it is stored are not free. The device I listened to it on was not free. The internet connection I used to download it was not free.

The idea that Wikipedia is free is also demonstrably false. It may be free at the point of access but Wikipedia regularly has fundraisers - it actually costs millions of dollars a year to run in hard cash.

As for the vision of the future much of the concerns and observations about capitalism are bang on the money (it does indeed seem to be beginning its death throes). However, I found the vision of a future information economy to be somewhat incomprehensible. Yes a citizens income paid for from savings gained by technology would seem like a good idea (but is highly unlikely to happen) but the repetitive mantra of the (not so) free information economy just didn't make sense to me. It is almost on a par with modern theoretical physics.

I wish I could share the positive future vision held by the author but he has a somewhat utopian view of humanity. Capitalism is a system that has grown as a reflection of humanity on the whole. While people have their good side (some more than others) the predominant forms of behaviour are manipulative, self serving, competitive and adversarial to the point of violence. The author does not address the fundamental state of human nature and how the world we see is really a reflection of it. Yes we can blame leaders but we collectively put them there. We (the masses) choose to listen to the media lies, to have the scope of our reality shaped by outside forces. Most people are not looking for a new way of shaping the economy, they are trying to get more money for a better house or car. Trying to pay for the kids holidays. Very few people have the slightest interest in economics, how fractional reserve lending works etc. We are tribal and defensive.

From considering history and the current state of world economics, including many salient points addressed by this book, I can only see a big war coming. A big one. The one that most people think can only exist in Holywood movies.

On the reading - yes the author restarts many sentences in this reading and why they were not edited out is somewhat mystifying. At first I thought this was a subversive reminder that a real fallible person had written the book and hence a nudge for us all to remember that we too are fallible humans but there were so many it did get quite annoying. Especially given that the fab technology and the ease with which this commercial paid-for release could have been made error-free.

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53 people found this helpful

Fantastic take down of capitalist economics!

What made the experience of listening to PostCapitalism the most enjoyable?

Mason reads fantastically well and the minor errors and retracing are so minor, and I think make it all the more human. I actually enjoy them. I feel so much more able to understand the complexity of economics and argue the case for an alternative to modern capitalism now. Let me at em!

What was one of the most memorable moments of PostCapitalism?

The section on Shakespearian history;

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10 people found this helpful

Interesting

Very clearly explained. An interesting listen. I think Paul Mason might be onto something although some of it sounds like daydreaming.

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fantastic eye opener

brilliant thinking. earnest delivery and an accurate summary of complex competing systems undermined by about 20 continuity errors in the audiobook. get a kindle or hard copy. Paul Mason is worth listening to

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4 people found this helpful

enlightening map into a better future

Enjoyed it thoroughly although this version includes reading errors by the author, thought these would be edited out as it's a bit distracting.

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1 person found this helpful

Good conclusion hard going in places for the non socialist

The parts when he is at his strongest is thinking about the trends and technologies which will influence the future and how to exploit them for the good of mankind. His particular emphasis on voluntary services makes for interesting reading.

Where this book is hard going is the large scale emphasis on 19th and early 20th century theories particularly Russian ones whilst interesting in small amounts becomes tedious after a while. And this section seems the be focused on demonstrating his communist credentials rather than appealing to the wider audience.

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Encouraging start - poor production

I’ve listened to scores of books (including the cassette borrowed from the library) I’ve never known such poor production values - so many careless mistakes- why?

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