The Zero Marginal Cost Society

The Internet of Things, Jeremy Rifkin argues, could push large parts of economic life toward near zero marginal cost, where goods and services become nearly free and abundant. In that shift he sees capitalism giving way to a global Collaborative Commons. He locates a paradox inside capitalism: the competitive drive that raises productivity and lowers marginal cost, the cost of producing one more unit, is the same force now undermining it. Rifkin describes the Communication Internet merging with an emerging Energy Internet and Logistics Internet into one platform, with billions of sensors on resources, production lines, the power grid, vehicles, homes and even people feeding Big Data into the network.

Michael Dell named it among his business books to read right now, summarizing Rifkin's case that falling costs are leading to a hybrid of capitalist markets and a collaborative commons. P2P Foundation founder Michel Bauwens said it shows how cheaper communication and coordination let small group dynamics scale globally.