by 
I was reading a story about rainbow capitalism and it struck me that new varieties of capitalism seem to spring up rather regularly. I keep a library of After Capitalism scanning hits in Diigo with the help of futurist friends, so I thought it would be fun to look through the 426 hits and see how many varieties of capitalism are in there. Drum roll please….. 38!
A few comments seem in order:
- I think my favorite is Anarcho-capitalism, the ideology of an absolutely free market and the abolishing of the state. Quite a radical version!
- Platform capitalism, “founded not on the capacity to produce material goods but on the ability to extract and control of vast amounts of data,” was mentioned the most often.
- Crony, Predatory, and Vulture capitalism make a not-so-nice trifecta.
- White capitalism was a new one for me.
I’m not sure what to make of this? Richard Wolff, certainly no friend of capitalism, had a piece How capitalism’s dogged defenders and propagandists defend it suggested that “the placing of qualifying adjectives to differentiate among kinds of capitalism allows defenders to accept some of the rising chorus of criticisms of capitalism. Those criticisms, defenders say, apply only to certain kinds of capitalism that defenders also reject in favour of some other, preferred kind of capitalism.”
It brings to mind going into one of those ice cream specialty shops with dozens of exotic flavors – you’re bound to find something you like!
What do y’all think? Is it a sign of desperation to find some flavor that clicks? Better still, have I overlooked your favorite flavor? – Andy Hines
PS: Hot off the press: “Internalized capitalism is this idea that our self-worth is directly linked to our productivity,” said Professor Anders Hayden. Apparently young people are using it to explain the feeling that no matter what they do, it’s never enough. Preach!
You may already have it on your list by another name, but consumer capitalism is worth considering as an addition. Here’s a related article looking as consumerism from a sociologist’s perspective instead of an economists: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22547185/consumerism-competition-history-interview
It was not on the list — thanks! I’ve got another half-dozen since publishing this. At some point, I’ll share the updated master list with the new ones.