(Ebook) Post-Capitalist Entrepreneurship: Startups for the 99% by Boyd Cohen ISBN 9781138713390, 1138713392

(Ebook) Post-Capitalist Entrepreneurship: Startups for the 99% by Boyd Cohen ISBN 9781138713390, 1138713392

The Occupy Movement with the ‘We are the 99%’ slogan, emerged as a reaction to a perception that the market-based form of capitalism employed in the US, and to differing degrees in democracies around the globe, is beyond broken. The average citizen has grown increasingly convinced that the system is set up to help the rich get richer. Data on income inequality, such as the Gini Index, suggests that the public perception may be an accurate one. In recent years we have seen a growth in calls for a new economic model, some refer to as post-capitalism.

Proponents of a post-capitalist society see greater changes needed. Rushkoff, for example, explored how the knowledge society is not leading to greater income distribution and the rising of all boats, but actually exacerbating the wealth accumulation in the hands of the one percent. Both Rushkoff and Mason (2016) lament the emergence of megaplatform digital peer to peer (P2P) ‘monopolies’, like Airbnb and Uber which seek global domination at all costs arguing that P2P platforms owned by ambitious, venture capital-backed corporations do not necessarily lead to further equality and amount to what my colleague and founder of Shareable, Neal Gorenflo, calls ‘platform deathstars.’

Yet Rushkoff refuses to actually blame executives and investors in Silicon Valley for the crisis of capitalism. Instead, he argues that they ‘are themselves caught up in a winner-takes-all race for dominance against all other other digital behemoths. It’s grow or die (pp.3-4).’