Capitalisn't
Capitalisn't talks about the ways capitalism is—or more often isn’t—working in our world today.
A lot of things are wrong with capitalism. Every day we learn about new ways that the economic system is reducing opportunities from every background, except for Jeff Bezos of course, and a couple of his friends.
But maybe, just maybe there's something okay-ish with it? In comes Capitalisn't a podcast about what works in capitalism.
In each episode, Bethany and Luigi talk to a guest who shares how capitalism may have a redeeming quality (question mark), or how we can change it.
Who would like this podcast?
If you want to see that not everything is totally bad with capitalism, learn about the intersections of economics and politics. Most importantly learn from the diverse roundup of guests: academics, venture partners, economists, writers, and active politicians.
I listen to this podcast every time I feel like I'm too negative about the current world. It's not that the podcast makes me think that capitalism is amazing. However, I discover new people who are talking about things from different perspectives, which also helps me expand my worldview.
Short disclaimer, you need to be comfortable with a lot of political and economical terminology.
Episode recommendations
Does Software Actually Slow Innovation? We hear a lot that employees' productivity is down, and James Bessen has an interesting theory on why this is, and how it ties to the SaaS model pioneered by big tech. With decades of non-compete contracts, the company's desire to protect its software and IP from everyone is putting weight on the employees, so their knowledge becomes untransferable.
The current state of software knowledge and data is less and less accessible, and regulatable. It's an amazing conversation around the great unbundling of the internet, and how the big tech companies are fighting back.
Quote, I loved: "The problem [lowering of innovation and the phenomenon of no new companies growing] is arising because these companies [Facebook] are benefiting society, definitely in the short run. It also poses a problem for regulation in that a software-based economy is increasingly difficult for government regulators to manage, to handle. Regulation has turned increasingly dependent on information, and yet a software-based economy means there are ample opportunities for information to be distorted"
Capitalism In Our Attention Economy With Albert Wenger. When I heard that Albert the guest of the episode is a Partner in a VC I sighed. I thought: "Here we go again, a capitalist. He will say everything is fine. We just need to hustle and grind". I was wrong.
A capitalist who is pro universal basic income, against copyright, and hates attention economy? Sign me up, I don't know where, but sign me up somewhere.
Albert talks about more effective knowledge discovery,
Quote, I'd yell from the top of every building: "YouTube combines the best and the worst of digital technology in one place. There are these amazing explanatory videos on YouTube on just about everything from fixing your kitchen sink to understanding advanced topics in math.
We could use systems to surface the best math content on YouTube, except that YouTube has zero economic incentives to do that. Zero, literally. "