This is an automatic English translation of the Dutch original.
Capitalism is now – what comes after it is up to you. Compellingly and provocatively, Serf Doesborgh opened a first session with changemakers with this statement.
On 24 April they turned out to have quite a few ideas of their own about a post-capitalist society.
We are all part of the capitalist system and you do not change that just like that. Not without settling in properly for it, and not with a small group.
On 24 April a dozen enthusiasts settled in properly, knowing that this is only the beginning. They had been encouraged by Post-X Society to travel to The Hague and set a movement in motion. Serf explained that the best way to do this is step by step.
The next step is on 5 June and you can be there. Read on for more information
How is the economy doing?
You know the drill. The economy is about supply & demand, about competition, about handling costs efficiently and above all: about growth. Otherwise the system cannot be sustained.
For that you need producers who have to make a profit on their products. Workers who make the products and are rewarded for it with a share of the proceeds (wages). And of course consumers, who have to pay producers as much as possible for those products.
Economics 101, according to Serf.
This system leads to the exploitation of people and of the earth. Many people see too little of the proceeds of their work, and a lot of nature and land is lost without this being factored into the costs. The system also leads to unnecessary production and consumption.
“It means we sometimes drive each other completely mad through a competitive rat race of working hard and shouting for attention and time. At the same time, we do not value half of the work that keeps the actual economy running: unpaid work, such as raising children and care.”
Income inequality is an important term here. Research by Pickett et al. (2024) shows that the greater the differences in incomes in a country, the greater the social, climate and environmental problems in that country. And vice versa: the smaller the income differences, the more liveable a country is.
So why don’t we put an end to inequality?
For this question Serf set the thinkers to work by reclaiming the origin of the word economy: ’managing a household’ and ’something in which you minimise waste and spending’. That is hard to achieve.
A few quotes from the discussion that followed:
- I find it hard to devote my life to one thing I am good at. Ideally I would want to do several things in my life. But the market does not ask for that.
- The market finds it hard to grant mortgages for unconventional households, such as a community of four parents who want to raise children together.
- There are plenty of people who want to live in smaller homes, but the market does not want that. Bizarre.
- The market has made it really hard to raise a young child. Our parents cannot help out because it is expensive to come to us, the people around us cannot help out because they have to work, and we cannot work less.
- Optimisation has got into me. Even on holiday I try to get everything out of it.
- I do not want to have to fight for money, but just to get here I need it.
- I cannot answer the question of how far I am willing to go to give up comfort in order to change the system. Life has to stay worth living.
Where do you draw hope from and what inspires you?
But Serf had not asked them to talk each other into a pit of gloom. He showed the X-curve he works with at the Rotterdam knowledge centre DRIFT. It shows, among other things, that you have to experiment in order to be able to move towards a different system. And that you then have to try to accelerate. Serf asked for glimmers of hope and got these:
- The internet has been changing the system for a long time; specifically internet forums.
- Repair cafés
- Time banks
- The self-managing ecosystem in Amsterdam Nieuw-West
- A festival based on ‘gifting’: you give what you think makes the party. Think of Where the sheep sleep and Burning Man NL.
- Wijkpaleis Rotterdam
- Car sharing
- Community housing
- Regenerative agriculture to restore biodiversity; think of the Weidehorst with 300 volunteers, in Wassenaar
This is not where it ends
In just under three hours with a dozen people you cannot change the world. But you can plant the first seeds.
Serf runs a Signal group, in which participants point each other to other glimmers of hope, and to links and books worth reading.
Above all, he organises at Post-X Society:
- on 5 June a follow-up to this session;
- a two-day session on 19 and 20 September, and
- follow-up sessions on 6 November and 23 & 24 January.
Put them in your diary and above all: join us online.
Because capitalism is now, and what comes after it is up to you.