Digitization and Capitalism

What influence do networking, digitalisation and automation have on the labour market? How do they put the concept of capital to the test? And which role does Karl Marx concept of »fictitious capital« play?

For the mainstream of opinion, the progressive networking of a production based on industrial robotics does not contradict capitalist socialization. The use of the »general intellect« according to Marx is rather traded as the new accumulation paradigm of capital. Has the system of capital exploitation finally emancipated itself from labor?

In this context, the role of »fictitious capital« in particular is systematically underestimated. In contrast to the generally accepted perception, the unleashing of the fictitious capital sector, the financial markets, speculation and global public debt are not the causes of the crisis processes of recent years. Rather, it was precisely this unleashing that once again granted a respite to the capitalist mode of production that was ultimately doomed to failure.

The environmental activist, journalist and growth critic Ernst Schmitter will present his book »Sackgasse Wirtschaft: Einführung in die Wertkritik«, which will be published in March.