In the ZEIT of December 4, 2014, there is again a writing about alternative forms of economy due to the loss of jobs due to technology, this time in an interview by Uwe Jean Heuser with Jeremy Rafkin. It quotes a speech by Larry Summers from 2001, who said that the economy will see a new revolution like that of e-electrification, because marginal costs for video, audio and text information will drop to almost 0. Profits could then only be made through monopolies, but it was not yet known which system would replace market capitalism. This, according to Rafkin, is actually paradoxical, because the market economy would then have created the most efficient markets of all, but then there would be no more profits, so that an economy of sharing could emerge.
Furthermore, according to Rafkin, the Internet of Things is a tripartite division of the Internet into a communication network, an energy network and a transport network. By the transport network, he means, for example, car sharing. Sensors would create complete transparency. At the same time, long-established companies such as RWE & Co are suffering the same fate as the music industry. Rafkin also sees the danger that jobs could be lost and there could be a break in society. “The third revolution in the 21st century will put an end to mass wage and salary work. But that takes half a century. […] We can still offer mass employment for two generations because we first have to create the infrastructure for the super Internet of Things. [… Once this platform is up and running, it will be powered by analytics and algorithms and managed by a small group of supervisory boards.” Rafkin assumes that the rest of the people will then do more social work and so-called social capital will be created. For example, Thatcher & Co should be grateful for the fact that the social sectors had to learn to finance themselves. Where this leads, in my opinion, is written in many other articles in the ZEIT: It is cared for according to the cash situation in hospitals and homes, unnecessary operations, etc.
Keynes allegedly wrote as early as 1930 that technology will replace jobs faster than new ones can be created. Rather, one should embrace this opportunity in order to “free humanity from the soulless duties of the market”. We have already read elsewhere that this does not work as hoped for with the shared economy at the beginning.