Brixton Pounds, 156
brokered barter system, 127
Brynjolfsson, Erik, 23, 53
Buffett, Warren, 168, 209
burn rate, 190
Bush, Jeb, 227–28
Calacanis, Jason, 201
Calvert, 209–10
Campbell Soup Company, 119
capital. See money
Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Piketty), 131
capitalism, 124–25
captology, 91
Caring Relationship Tickets (Fureai Kippu), 162
Case, Steve, 186
central currency system, 124–26, 128–39
abolishing of local moneys in favor of, 128–29
alternatives to, 154–67
austerity and, 136–37
complementary systems, 164–65
crash of 2007 and, 133–34
creation of, by lending it into existence, 129–30
credit as product, 132–33
debasements, taxation through, 130
Federal Reserve policies and, 137–38
growth and, 126, 129–31, 133–36
growth trap and, 133–34
interest on, 129–31
Mill’s stationary state and, 135–36
operating system nature of, 125–26
outlawing of local currencies and replacement with, 128–29
putting more into circulation, through government taking on debt and paying workers, 137–38
stimulative policies and, 136, 137
taxation through debasement of, 129
Charles Schwab, 176
chartered monopolies, 18, 56, 70, 101, 125, 131
Chen, Perry, 198
Chesterton, G. K., 229
Circuit City, 90
Citizens United case, 72
Claritas, 32
click workers, 50
climate change, 135, 227–28, 237
coin of the realm, 128–29
collaboration as corporate strategy, 106–7
colonialism, 71–72
commons, 215–23
co-owned networks and, 220–23
history of, 215–16
projects inspired by, 217–18
successful, elements of, 216–17
tragedy of, 215–16
worker-owned collectives and, 219–20
competencies, of corporations, 79–80
Connect+Develop, 107
Consumer Electronics Show, 19
Consumer Reports, 33
contracting with small and medium-sized enterprises, 112
cooperative currencies, 160–65
favor banks, 161
LETS (Local Exchange Trading System), 163–65
time dollar systems, 161–63
co-owned networks, 220–23
corporations, 68–82
acquisition of startups, growth through, 78
amplifying effect of, 70, 73
Big Shift and, 76
cash holdings of, 76, 77–78
competency of, 79–80
cost reduction, growth through, 79–80
decentralized autonomous corporations (DACs), 149–50
Deloitte’s study of return on assets (ROA) of, 76–77
distributive alternative to platform monopolies, 93–97
evaluation of, 69–74
extractive nature of, 71–72, 73, 74, 75, 80–82
growth targets, meeting, 68–69
income inequality and, 81–82
limits to corporate model, 75–76, 80–82
managerial and financial methods to deliver growth by, 77–79
monopolies (See monopolies)
obsolescence created by, 70–71, 73
offshoring and, 78–79
personhood of, 72, 73–74, 90, 91
recoding of, 93–97, 125–26
repatriation and, 80
retrieval of values of empire and, 71–72, 73
as steady-state enterprises, 97–123
Costco, 74
cost reduction, and corporate growth, 79–80
Couchsurfing.com, 46
crashes
of 1929, 99
of 2007, 133–34
biotech crash, of 1987, 6
flash crash, 180
Creative Commons, 215
creative destruction, 83–87
credit, 132–33
credit-card companies, 143–44
crowdfunding, 38–39, 198–201
crowdsharing apps, 45–49
crowdsourcing platforms, 49–50
Crusades, 16
Cumbrian Pounds, 156
Curitiba, Brazil modified LETS program, 164–65
Daly, Herman, 184
data
big, 39–44
getting paid for our own, 44–45
“likes” economy and, 32, 34–36
in pre-digital era, 40
Datalogix, 32
da Vinci, Leonardo, 236
debt, 152–54
decentralized autonomous corporations (DACs), 149–50
deflation, 169
Dell, 115–16
Dell, Michael, 115–16
Deloitte Center for the Edge, 76–77
destructive destruction, 100
Detroit Dollars, 156
digital distributism, 224–39
artisanal era mechanisms and values retrieved by, 233–34
developing distributive businesses, 237–38
digital industrialism compared, 226
digital technology and, 230–31
historical ideals of distributism, 228–30
leftism, distinguished, 231
Pope Francis’s encyclical espousing distributed approach to land, labor and capital, 227–28
Renaissance era values, rebirth of, 235–37
subsidiarity and, 231–32
sustainable prosperity as goal of, 226–27
digital economy, 7–11
big data and, 39–44
destabilizing form of digitally accelerated capitalism, creation of, 9–10
digital marketplace, development of, 24–30
digital transaction networks and, 140–51
disproportionate relationship between capital and value in, 9
distributism and, 224–39
externalizing cost of replacing employees in, 14–15
industrialism and, 13–16, 23–24, 44, 53–54, 93, 101–2, 201, 214, 226
industrial society, distinguished, 11
“likes” and similar metrics, economy of, 30–39
platform monopolies and, 82–93, 101
digital industrialism, 13–16, 23–24, 101–2, 201
digital distributism compared, 226
diminishing returns of, 93
externalizing costs and, 14–15
growth agenda and, 14–15, 23–24
human data as commodity under, 44
income disparity and, 53–54
labor and land pushed to unbound extremes by, 214
“likes” economy and, 33
reducing bottom line as means of creating illusion of growth and, 14
digital marketplace, 24–30
early stages of e-commerce, 25–26
highly centralized sales platforms of, 29
initial treatment of Internet as commons, 25
“long tail” of widespread digital access and, 26
positive reinforcement feedback loop and, 28
power-law dynamics and, 26–29
removal of humans from selection process in, 28
digital transaction networks, 140–51
Bitcoin, 143–49, 150–51, 152
blockchains and, 144–51
central authorities, dependence on, 142
decentralized autonomous corporations (DACs) and, 149–50
PayPal, 140–41
theft and, 142
direct public offerings (DPOs), 205–6
discount brokerages, 176–78
diversification, 208, 211
dividends, 113–14, 208–10
dividend traps, 113
Dorsey, Jack, 191–92
Draw Something, 192, 193
Drexler, Mickey, 116
dual transformation, 108–9
dumbwaiter effect, 19
Dutch East India Company, 71, 89, 131
eBay, 16, 26, 29, 45, 140
education industry, 95–97
Eisenhower administration, 52–53, 63, 75
Elberse, Anita, 28
employee-owned companies, 116–18
Enron, 133, 171n
Eroski, 220
eSignal, 178
EthicalBay, 221
E*Trade, 176, 177
Etsy, 16, 26, 30
expense reduction, and corporate growth, 78–79
Facebook, 4, 31, 83, 93, 96, 201
data gathering and sales by, 41, 44
innovation by acquisition of startups, 78
IPO of, 192–93, 195
psychological experiments conducted on users by, 32–33
factors of production, 212–14
Fairmondo, 221
Family Assistance Plan, 63
family businesses, 103–4, 231–32
FarmVille, 192
favor banks, 161
Febreze Set & Refresh, 108
Federal Reserve, 137–38
feedback loop, and positive reinforcement, 28
Ferriss, Tim, 201
feudalism, 17
financial services industry, 131–33, 171–73, 175
Fisher, Irving, 158
flash crash, 180
flexible purpose corporations, 119–20
flow, investing in, 208–10
Forbes, 88, 173, 174
40-hour workweek, reduction of, 58–60
401(k) plans, 171–74
Francis, Pope, 227, 228, 234
Free, Libre, Open Knowledge (FLOK) program, 217–18
Free (Anderson), 33
free money theory, local currencies based on, 156–59
barter exchanges, 159
during Great Depression, 158–59
self-help cooperatives, 159
stamp scrip, 158–59
tax anticipation scrip, 159
Wörgls, 157–58
frenzy, 98–99
Fried, Jason, 59
Friedman, Milton, 64
Friendster, 31
Frito-Lay, 80
front running, 180–81
Fulfillment by Amazon, 89
Fureai Kippu (Caring Relationship Tickets), 162
Future of Work initiative, 56n
Gallo, Riso, 103–4
Gap, 116
Gates, Bill, 186
General Electric, 132
General Public License (GPL) for software, 216
Gesell, Silvio, 157
GI Bill, 99
Gimein, Mark, 147
Gini coefficient of income inequality, 81–82, 92
global warming, 135, 227–28, 237
GM, 80
Goldman Sachs, 133, 195
gold standard, 139
Google, 8, 48, 78, 83, 90–91, 93, 141, 218
acquisitions by, 191
business model of, 37
data sales by, 37, 44
innovation by acquisition of startups, 78
IPO of, 194–95
protests against, 1–3, 5, 98–99
grain receipts, 128
great decoupling, 53
Great Depression, 137, 158–59
Great Exhibition, 1851, 19
Greenspan, Alan, 132–33
growth, 1–11
bazaars, and economic expansion in late Middle Ages, 16–18
central currency and, 126, 129–31, 133–36
digital industrialism, growth agenda of, 14–15, 23–24
highly centralized e-commerce platforms and, 29
startups, hypergrowth expected of, 187–91
as trap (See growth trap)
growth trap, 4–5, 68–123
central currency as core mechanism of, 133–34
corporations as program and, 68–82
platform monopolies and, 82–93, 101
recoding corporate model and, 93–97
steady-state enterprises and, 98–123
guaranteed minimum income programs, 62–65
guaranteed minimum wage public jobs, 65–66
guilds, 17
Hagel, John, 76–77
Hardin, Garrett, 215–16
Harvard Business Review, 108–9
Heiferman, Scott, 196–97
Henry VIII, King, 215, 229
Hewlett-Packard UK, 112
high-frequency trading (HFT), 179–80
Hilton, 115
Hobby Lobby case, 72
Hoffman, Reid, 61
Holland, Addie Rose, 205–6
holograms, 235
Homeport New Orleans, 121
housing industry, 135
Huffington, Arianna, 34, 35, 201
Huffington Post, 34, 201
human role in economy, 13–67
aristocracy’s efforts to control peasant economy, 17–18
bazaars and, 16–18
big data and, 39–44
chartered monopolies and, 18
decreasing employment and, 30–39
digital marketplace, impact of, 24–30
industrialism and, 13–16, 18–24, 44
“likes” economy and, 30–39
reevaluation of employment and adopting policies to decrease it and, 54–67
sharing economy and, 44–54
Hurwitz, Charles, 117
IBM, 90–91, 112
inclusive capitalism, 111–12
income disparity
corporate model and, 81–82
digital technology as accelerating, 53–54
Gini coefficient of, 81–82, 92
growth trap and, 4
power-law dynamics and, 27–28, 30
public service options for reducing, 65–66
IndieGogo, 30, 199
individual retirement accounts (IRAs), 171
industrial farming, 134–35
industrialism, 18–24
branding and, 20
digital, 13–16, 23–24, 44, 53–54, 93, 101–2, 201, 214, 226
disempowerment of workers and, 18–19
human connection between producer and consumer, loss of, 19–20
isolation of human consumers from one another and, 20–21
mass marketing and, 19–20
mass media and, 20–21
purpose of, 18–19, 22
value system of, 18–19
inflation, 169
Instagram, 31
Intercontinental Exchange, 182
interest, 129–31
investors/investing, 70, 72, 168–223
algorithmic trading and, 179–84
bounded, 210–15
commons model for running businesses and, 215–23
crowdfunding and, 198–201
derivative finance, volume of
, 182
digital technology and, 169–70, 175–84
direct public offerings (DPOs) and, 205–6
discount brokerages and, 176–78
diversification and, 208, 211
dividends and, 208–10
flow, investing in, 208–10
high-frequency trading (HFT) and, 179–80
in low-interest rate environment, 169–70
microfinancing platforms and, 202–4
platform cooperatives and, 220–23
poor performance of do-it-yourself traders and, 177–78
retirement savings and, 170–75
startups and, 184–205
ventureless capital and, 196–205
irruption, 98
i-traffic, 196
iTunes, 27, 29, 34, 89
J. Crew, 116
Jay Z, 36
Jefferson, Thomas, 19
Jenkins, George W., 117
Jobs, Steve, 186
J.P. Morgan, 142
Kapor, Mitch, 186
Kickstarter, 38, 198–99, 200, 201
King, Larry, 25
Kiva, 202–3
Klein, Naomi, 135
Known, 96–97
Kodak, 83, 98
labor, 212–14
Lacy, Sarah, 197
land, 212–14
Lanier, Jason, 44–45, 58
La’Zooz, 222
Leary, Timothy, 25
Lefsetz, Bob, 34
leftism, 231
Lending Club, 202–3, 204
Leo XIII, Pope, 228–29, 230
Lerner, Jaime, 164, 165
Lessig, Lawrence, 199, 215
LETS (Local Exchange Trading System), 163–65
Lietaer, Bernard, 139, 208
Life, Inc. (Rushkoff), 70n
“likes” and similar metrics, economy of, 30–39
crowdfunding as alternative to, 38–39
data as product and, 32, 34–36
growth of social media companies at expense of their users and, 33
media company, becoming one’s own, 35–36
paywalls as alternative to, 37–38
revenue generated from data gleaned from, 32
simulation of humanity through artificial social media and, 33
users as products and, 32–33
limited liability companies (LLCs), 72
Lippincott, 74
L.L. Bean, 80
local currencies, 154–65
cooperative community currencies, 160–65
free money theory, currencies based on, 156–59
local multiplier effect, 155
Long Tail theory, 26, 33
low-profit limited liability company (L3C), 120–21
Luckett, Oliver, 35–36
Lyft, 45, 47, 87
Machine Learning lab, 90–91
McAfee, Andrew, 23, 53
McCluhan, Marshall, 229
McKenna, Terence, 234
McLuhan, Marshall, 69
Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity Page 31
