Outgrowing Capitalism

"Outgrowing Capitalism: Rethinking Money to Reshape Society and Pursue Purpose", Marco Dondi

Marco Dondi’s core argument is correct. In developed economies, automation is reducing labour income relative to the output value, making work and wages insufficient to deliver adequate living standards. The deficiency is made up of household debt and welfare-boosted government debt, leading to economic crisis and austerity respectively. The only solution to get necessary income to people, and debt out of the system, is basic income (UBI) funded by debt-free sovereign money, both constrained by full potential output GDP. In developing economies, UBI should be funded by economic growth mediated through relaxation of debt/GDP ratios to developed economy levels, and by redefining government money creation as not debt. But Dondi’s chapter on basic income is brief and incomplete (p43-53), and his synthesis of UBI with sovereign money is delayed to page 217.

In delivering this message Dondi’s book is long, rambling, precocious and didactive. He claims to be the first person in world history to dedicate years of his life to propose a realistic alternative to capitalism(p9), although he does also refer to Marx (p147)! He has an MBA from INSEAD(p191), works for McKinsey, has been to Swaziland (p1), and curiously tells us that he no longer trusts or relates to his mother (p25). His book would be far better stripped of these irrelevant vanities and edited to a succinct text of fewer than 100 pages.

The book is available here.

Geoff Crocker
Editor ‘The Case for Universal Basic Income'
www.ubi.org

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