Caught between Two Modes of Surveillance Capitalism

And is there a way out of this vicious circle?

Photo by Redd on Unsplash

Right now we are caught between two competing models of capitalism. Surveillance late capitalism reigns in the US where giant corporations and their operatives have captured the state. They use the US Treasury as their private piggy bank and the legislature as their private lawyers. Surveillance nanny state capitalism reigns in China where the political and bureaucratic class are in the process of capturing the free market. They use the police and army as their personal thugs. The competition between America and China is, at its heart, a competition between these two models of capitalism. If either model wins, large swarth of humanity will be reduced to fodder to feed the respective machines.

The consequences of surveillance late capitalism

Wealth disparity, infrastructure deterioration, and social disintegration are clear as day in the US. These are the direct results of corporations’ and billionaires’ tax avoidance which reduces tax revenues, followed by corporate welfare and corporate-benefiting wars that consumes the majority of what’s left of the tax revenue. The politicians then use this dwindling tax revenue to build even more military hardware and giving even more tax cuts to the super wealthy. Inevitably, there is less…