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La Società A Costo Marginale Zero (2014)

by Jeremy Rifkin(Favorite Author)

4.05 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Mondadori

review 1: At first I thought this book way too Utopian, and would have dismissed most of it had I not seen in my neck of the woods, a neighborhood web based site, quite popular, where people give out stuff for FREE, posting pictures saying come and get it. If you are interested we will even bring it over. My own adult children are not at all interested in fashion trends or the latest brand name products. Perhaps there is hope for humanity yet.
review 2: Hmm. Let me see if I can sum up Rifkin's argument. The two previous industrial revolutions were defined by new energy paradigms that were facilitated by new forms of communication. He envisions a new, third industrial revolution driven by distributed green energy and the Internet.From there, he loops in technological adva... morences, saying some combination of the Internet of Things, 3D printing, free online education, and automation will create an era of abundance driven by zero marginal costs. Structured around the collaborative commons and intelligent infrastructure, this new paradigm will eventually supplant capitalism.Rifkin touches on just about everything a millennial could ask for in a new world order: car sharing, the death of advertising, the preservation of the ecosystem... it's a very seductive web he weaves.But the story he tells is a fairly complex one, and any number of things can knock the larger narrative out of whack. He touches on climate change and cyberterrorism at the end of the book, but the perils go far beyond that. The transition to a green economy is not happening at the speed required, at least in the United States. The fossil fuel economy could also fall apart much more quickly than he imagines. Saying nothing of more nefarious hiccups, like the corporate takeover of the sharing economy, using our social capital to circumvent taxation, government regulation, and minimum wage.And as nice as a "zero marginal cost society" sounds, especially when you say it over and over again, it ignores the radical upheaval that this transition would cause. Standards of living are slipping, government debt is exploding, underemployment and employment participation are going down, the industrial economy is being dismantled.From my perch of privilege, this third industrial revolution seems pretty cool. Less advertising, cheaper goods, sustainable economies green energy. Problem is, lots of people don't stand to gain quite as much.Nice book, good food for thought, but probably wildly optimistic. less

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