The Triumph of Communo-Capitalism

Let us all agree that the world is getting ever fonder of the individual - individual rights, individual liberties, individual possessions, individual lifestyles.  If there’s something that capitalism should be about, it’s the individual, what with the encouragement of increasing personal property and wealth and all.  At the same time, the capitalism envisioned by Karl Marx in his time was one of limiting individual ownership to a select few who were lucky enough to scrape up or to be endowed with the means to purchase it.  One of his biggest beefs was that the producers were not the owners of the means of production.

Well, what would he think today?  We have moved beyond cavernous factories full of machinery and embraced intangible services rather than material goods as the results of our labor.  Certainly, there is some outside ownership of certain tools, but as each day goes by we get closer to a world in which each employee may be allowed - nay, required - to provide their own resources to get the job done.  What’s this?  Yes!  It has become too onerous to provide for employees who now expect benefits and safe working environments.  Now, the business is merely a network, a tent under which independent contractors can gather to do their part in moving the economy inch by virtual inch.  The big winners are those who run the network, of course, the new captains of “industry”.  But, if we ask who owns the means of production the answer is - the producers!  The perfect blend of capital and community!  We are all responsible for ourselves, free individuals, and as such we are beholden to no master, no factory owner.  With a laptop, even a phone, we can create content for consumption by the masses, we can provide services in ways unimaginable a century ago.  Admittedly, private property still exists, so true Communism is unfulfilled by this reality, but if everybody has the means of production in their hands, then the distance between the old masters and servants is diminished.

Now all we need is to own the means of promotion too.