Three Possible Economic Models (Part 1)
Jamais Cascio
2009-08-21 00:00:00
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Although it's easy to think otherwise, the structure of the modern global economy is not terribly old, arguably dating back to the collapse of the gold standard in 1971, or the post-World War II "Bretton Woods" conference in 1944. Earlier versions of what we would nonetheless still call "capitalism" had very different degrees (and kinds) of government intervention, roles for labor and capital, even rules about currencies. Add to that the mention more extreme variants such as socialism and communism, corporatism (fascism), and the sundry experiments in anarchism, and you have quite a menagerie of all-but-extinct economic models.

The social and economic structures underpinning the modern world are constantly evolving, and there will very likely soon come a point--probably in the next generation or so, if history is a guide--that we no longer see the socioeconomic world as belonging to the same "species" as back at the beginning of the 21st century. Instead, we'll probably see a period of experimentation with diverse economic forms; indeed, the mid-21st century could well be a truly exciting time for wonkery.

Speaking as a social futurist, not an economist, the three emerging conditions that ride high on my list of potential breaking points for the modern economy are as follows:

Read the rest at Fast Company.