If you look around properly, you can clearly see that capitalism is dying. The instability and uncertainty of the global as well as national economies is not a coincidence but it is still causing major havoc. I’ve been following the developments in global politics and economics with a sharp eye for over a decade now, and I predict that capitalism – as we know it today – will end by 2040.
In fact, I firmly believe that capitalism will end much sooner, and in this article I will justify my bold prediction. Like so often, also in this case things will fall like dominoes. One eventuality leads to another, which leads to another, until the last domino falls.
And what then? Well, I have already covered what I hope the world without capitalism could look like. Of course it’s a very optimistic assessment but then again we can’t know until the time comes. What we can do now is to acknowledge the domino effect that is currently happening and to prepare as best we can.
These 5 points should give you some ideas on how you can start to prepare for the imminent crash. This is the domino effect that kills capitalism:
1st Domino: AI is Taking All of Our Jobs
We can already see it: joblessness is growing everywhere faster than ever. And it’s not a surprise or an unexpected occurrence! Artificial Intelligence gained mainstream attention in 2023, and from then on its growth and development has been stratospheric.
While AI still can’t replace humans in terms of actual creativity (even though many companies try), it can already do most admin and managing related jobs perfectly. While it does take companies some time to integrate the right kind of AI into their operations in a way that would threaten actual human jobs, it is currently happening everywhere around us.
And as more and more people lose their jobs, it will put a great strain on social, governmental and economic models. Capitalism is dying because homelessness and crime will increase while more and more people have less and less money to spend, which leads to:
2nd Domino: Wealth Inequality Suffocates Consumerism
The whole premise of capitalism was always to accumulate as much wealth as possible to as small a group as possible. And we are now seeing how successful that rigged system has been. Sure, it brought prosperity for many at the beginning, but the end goal was always wealth inequality. Why is this a problem, though?
- Well, as we know, the richest part of the human population does not use their wealth to buy products and services, aka consume.
- Instead, they tend to invest their wealth in the stock markets or in property, which means that money stays still.
- This kills capitalism because capitalism requires growing consumption.
At the same time the majority of the population is left with no money to spare. As people get creative to stretch a penny to afford the basic necessities, more and more companies go bankrupt because they lose their customers. Without the middle class’s spending, capitalism is dying as money stops moving.
3rd Domino: The Planet (= Us) Runs Out of Resources
While all of the above is going on, the degradation of our planet has been going on for decades. And also on this front we are fast approaching the point where things either start changing drastically or we start dying of starvation. This is all because of capitalism:
- The whole point of the system is never-ending growth but we live on a planet that does not grow.
- As such, we only have a certain amount of resources in our disposal each year.
- And for decades we’ve over-consumed and over-exploited these natural resources.
- This leads to climate change, which we already see everywhere around the world.
Capitalism is dying because it can’t be sustained. The whole model/system was completely unsustainable from the start and while global resources become scarcer, capitalist economies are doing everything they can to ignore the problem and just accelerate onwards. Until one day it all hits a wall.
The majority of us will be dead by then, unless we fight capitalism today! The aforementioned scenario is not in the far future anymore and if we don’t do something now we won’t be able to feed ourselves or protect ourselves against the ever-worsening storms for long.
4th Domino: The Shift Towards Bartering and Skill Swapping
Humans are a creative species and we will always find a way to cling to life, no matter what. And if we do the clinging as a community, we actually have good odds of surviving. Maybe even thriving again one day.
Once money becomes unattainable for the large majority of us, we start finding other ways to keep ourselves fed, sheltered and healthy. For many that solution will be a barter economy. This is how the world worked before money was invented:
People would use certain products, like grain, as currency in exchange for other products or services. The sharing economy and bartering are already growing in popularity as the AI age spreads. And no wonder! We’re used to the Good Life now, there’ll be hell to pay if we would allow anyone to take it away from us!
5th Domino: Loss of Credibility →Political Instability
All of the above obviously eats away at the credibility of the current political and economic systems. Those few who still believe in the lies coming out of politicians’ and economic “experts” mouths are going to be left wondering what the hell happened when everything around them crashes. Are you one of those few?
Another issue, that will rattle the cage of the political and economic system that we live in, is the imbalance between 90% of humans and the 10% that are hoarding all the wealth and power. We don’t say ‘Eat the rich’ to stay warm. The day may soon come, as capitalism is dying, when we do eat them. There simply isn’t anything else left and they are the fattest.
As public frustration grows, an ever-growing portion of the population demands systemic changes. At this point they can only revolve around the decline of capitalism. And there’s no denying, those changes won’t come easy and it probably won’t be pretty.
Capitalism is Dying – Final Thoughts
Sure, capitalism is dying but will it happen in this specific order? At this point it’s impossible to say. But these five issues will follow each other in whichever order and the result is the same. How we all come out of this mess is up to how we prepare for the inevitable.
- Many choose to ignore the existence of the mess. No matter which angle you look at them from, you can’t deny that they will be among the ones who’ll pay the highest price.
- Others feel powerless and just muddle on while losing sleep over the inconvenient future. They may also bear more than they should, but they are at least better equipped to react when needed because they are aware.
- And then there are those who shake hands with the uncomfortable truth. They learn about why things are the way they are and what we could do better on a personal level.
The ones who take action now will be better off. But even they will be hit by the consequences of the slow crash of capitalism. What do you think, are you ready to shake off and shift away from the wasteful over-consumption and excess? Or would you rather try and hide from the truth?
