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What’s a mobster to do? The corporate world is taking over all their ventures. In its desperate search for economic growth, capitalism has fully embraced the pursuit and monetization of sin.
The latest corporate entry into sin is sports betting, Sure, we have had plenty of gambling in plenty of different forms, from lotteries, to Vegas, to casinos. But general widespread sports betting has been taboo. But not anymore. Media outlets now have sports betting as their primary focus. Some sports shows focus on it — how many points tonight? win by how much? Over or under? If you haven’t listened to AM sports radio for a while, they have totally bought into betting in an attempt to save their dying enterprise. Its literally all about the money.
Many states are legalizing various drugs, which , but it fits with the pursuit of dollars and tried-and-true justification of increasing tax revenues.
And the sex industry, already huge, is thoroughly mainstreaming. From the back alleys to the big screen, with the top Only Fans sex workers pulling in millions of dollars. Activities once seen as taboo are now okay.
Why? Look no further than stagnation, one of the seven key drivers of After Capitalism. Stagnation has multiple dimensions:
- it is getting harder to find areas for capitalism to grow, and capitalism needs growth to keep itself going.
- Second is the possibility that as more and more people lose their jobs to AI and automation, there are fewer people with means to buy the increasing volume of goods and services capitalism needs to keep its fire burning.
- Lastly, I’ll briefly note the fact that the “real” economy is now dwarfed by the financial economy, which is in part an outcome of fewer perceived “real” things to do, at least in the sense of making money. Put more bluntly, there is much more money to be made in the financial economy than the real economy.
I’m not taking a moral stance here, but noting it is capitalism in its search for growth is getting desperate that is driving this. Perhaps it’s a sign that capitalism is winding down and that it’s time to question whether we want to rely on a system that is desperate for growth, in a context where growth is literally killing the planet. – Andy Hines
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