It seems to be the time, right now, for the media world to announce the end of capitalism and our entry into the postcapitalist world. It could be because Barack Obama and the Democrat Party have done so much damage to the formerly thriving commercial world that its demise is evident to many in a near decade of American and European stagnation.
Or it could be that the vapid and irrelevant nonsense of Lefty theology has become so obvious that many are seeing any alternative as the next phase of modernity.
Or, it could be pure romanticism that sees smartphone apps, Uber car sharing and Airbnb home sharing as a return to the imaginary cooperative world of the past.
I see all of these explanations for our imaginary postcapitalist emergence.
Regardless, it is a mountain of absurd fantasy.
None of these prophets has the vaguest understanding of commerce and the modern world. If they call it ‘capitalism’ you know they can’t think. There is not now and never has been ‘capitalism’ except in the Marxist worldview. There is ‘commerce’ in its trade, industrial and clientric forms. Commerce can be stifled and thwarted by political systems and governments, as is the case in Europe, but it can not be suppressed out of existence. It is inherently a weed that will always survive given soil and rain.
Commerce has become inherent in the worldview of hundreds of millions of people. They will always find ways to turn a tree into many saleable products, to rent out their cave and to work as porters and messengers, healers for those in need. When someone can make and sell two products they will always, now, find a way to make hundreds to sell. They will find ways to finance their projects and create outlets to expand distribution.
Commerce is now our way of life. We can not remake our outmoded extended families, clans or tribes.
There is no 'post-commercial' world. Commerce always includes cooperation, in fact nearly 95% of commerce is voluntary cooperation and commerce always welcomes innovation. Commerce is here to stay and it is able to accommodate better to all new circumstances than any other human institution.