Is greater technological efficiency leading to the death of capitalism? This is the argument author Jeremy Rifkin makes in his book “The Zero Marginal Cost Society.”
Rifkin cites the information goods industry and the sharing economy as harbingers of this new non-economy. Where platforms such as YouTube and Medium removed publishing and publicity costs almost completely for content creators, businesses such as Uber and Airbnb will do the same for their respective industries.
These platforms — by allowing millions to connect and share assets with minimal expense — are driving costs for companies and consumers down to zero, rendering capitalism as we know it obsolete. But capitalism will be alive and well — it just may be hard to recognize.