Capitalism Versus the Sharing Economy

Sidharth Goel College Writing 4B, Section 10 December 23, 2013 Capitalism Versus the Sharing Economy I. Introduction The foundations of the contemporary capitalist system rely on the transfer and manipulation of knowledge and ideas on the global stage. What defines a nation’s economic might is not necessarily its GDP or its abundance of natural resources but rather the quality of the ideas it contributes and its capacity to affect social change. While today’s environment seems to valorize the individual’s value over that of the masses, it is the collective ability of a community to produce certain forms of knowledge that society valuable. By investigating the underpinnings of today’s knowledge economy, it becomes clear that sharing is the most effective tool for generating more value. This realization, however, carries with it a fundamental contradiction within capitalism: to become more profitable and access a larger market, traditional economic models must be ignored, or, at least, adapted to today’s cultural scene. The very technologies and principles that have enabled capitalism to reach its ideological dominance are now the tools that are threatening its existence as we know it. However, rather than accepting this fact, capitalism and its proponents have chosen to battle it head on, without considering the collateral damage – the people. The situation capitalism faces can best be understood by looking at how specific technologies, which, ironically, are the consequence of a capitalist drive to maximize profit, are being utilized in ways that rattle capitalism’s underpinnings. By looking at how open source culture and community-driven content are being used today, one can see how today’s capitalist