Postcapitalism

Information technology, British journalist Paul Mason contends, is a threat to capitalism itself: because it pushes the cost of copying software, music and designs toward zero, it undermines an economy built on markets, wages and private ownership. The first section reads the 2008 financial crisis through Nikolai Kondratiev's theory of long economic waves, drawing also on Marx, Luxemburg and Schumpeter. The second builds on Marx's Fragment on Machines and points to free goods such as Linux and Firefox. As signs that change is already under way, Mason cites time banks, parallel currencies, co-operatives and self-managed online spaces. The third section sets out five principles for a transition to a fairer, sustainable postcapitalist economy. It was published in 2015.

Zeall.us founder and chief executive Lucas Morales put it on a list of contrarian reads for people who look for big-picture trends.