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Capitalisms economic singularities

Marxist Theory · 2026-05-13

Core Argument

The article argues that capitalism has reached a structural impasse where the further development of the productive forces — specifically in automation, renewable energy, and information technology — directly contradicts the system's own operational logic. This is not a cyclical crisis but a qualitative break: the productive forces are approaching what Adam Booth, following Calum Chace, calls an "economic singularity" — a point at which the labour time required to produce commodities tends toward zero, and with it the value, profit, and price mechanisms upon which capitalism depends. The central claim is that the system has become a fetter on the very technologies it spawned, and that this contradiction is now empirically visible across multiple sectors simultaneously.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis is rooted in Marx's materialist conception of history as outlined in the 1859 Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy: the proposition that at a certain stage the productive forces come into conflict with the existing relations of production, turning from forms of development into fetters. The article operationalises this through Marx's labour theory of value, specifically the law of value as it operates through socially necessary labour time. When labour time approaches zero, value collapses, and with it the basis for profit, investment, and market coordination.

Booth draws on three distinct but convergent empirical cases to demonstrate this theoretical claim:

  1. Automation and AI: Following Chace's The Economic Singularity, the argument is that technological unemployment is not a temporary dislocation but a structural tendency. Without wages, there is no effective demand; without labour in production, there is no new value and thus no profit.

  2. Renewable energy: The marginal cost of wind and solar is effectively zero once infrastructure is in place. As deployment increases, electricity prices fall, destroying profitability and deterring investment — a contradiction the Economist itself admits.

  3. Information technology: Drawing on Paul Mason's PostCapitalism, digital goods have zero marginal reproduction cost. The market mechanism breaks down; monopoly becomes the only viable business model, and abundance is actively suppressed.

The article situates itself within the Marxist tradition that emphasises the objective, material basis for revolutionary transition — not as a matter of political will alone, but as a necessity forced by the system's own internal contradictions. It is a contribution to the long-standing Marxist discussion on the relationship between productive forces and relations of production, updated for the specific technological conjuncture of the 21st century.

Conjunctural Relevance

The article was published in June 2017, nearly a decade after the 2008 global financial crisis, and addresses the prolonged period of stagnation that followed. It connects the abstract theoretical argument to concrete developments:

  • Automation: The article references growing mainstream concern about "technological unemployment" and the popularity of Universal Basic Income proposals as a reformist response to a systemic contradiction.
  • Renewable energy: It cites a specific Economist article from early 2017, "Clean energy's dirty secret", which admitted that renewables are "wrecking the world's electricity markets" and that at 100% renewable penetration, wholesale electricity prices would fall to zero, deterring all unsubsidised investment.
  • Information technology: The analysis draws on Mason's observation that info-tech destroys the normal price mechanism, forcing monopoly as the only viable structure — Apple's mission statement, as Mason puts it, is "to prevent the abundance of music".

The article situates these sectoral contradictions within the broader political context of "secular stagnation", permanent austerity, declining living standards, and the political polarisation and radicalisation visible across all major economies. It is a direct intervention into the post-2008 conjuncture, arguing that the crisis is not a temporary downturn but a structural impasse requiring revolutionary change.

Where the Argument Continues

The article is part of a broader corpus of Marxist analysis on the crisis of capitalism and the necessity of socialist revolution. The argument continues in several directions:

  • Other IDOM articles: The article references "we have commented on elsewhere" regarding mainstream recognition of capitalism's impasse, and links to a review of Mason's PostCapitalism. These form part of a sustained theoretical engagement with contemporary political economy.
  • Against the Stream: The political conclusions — the rejection of reformist palliatives like UBI, the insistence on revolutionary transformation — are developed in the broader political analysis of the RCI's audio and video output.
  • Marxist classics: The argument is a direct application of Marx's method from the 1859 Preface and Capital Volume I. Readers would benefit from returning to those texts alongside this analysis.
  • Contemporary Marxist economics: The article engages with the work of Paul Mason and Calum Chace, situating itself within a wider debate about post-capitalism, technological unemployment, and the crisis of value theory.

The article does not develop a detailed political programme for the transition, nor does it address the question of revolutionary strategy in depth. These are left for other contributions in the tradition.

Connections

  • Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Preface — the foundational text for the materialist conception of history.
  • Karl Marx, Capital, Volume I — the labour theory of value and the law of value.
  • Paul Mason, PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future (2015) — the source for the information economy argument.
  • Calum Chace, The Economic Singularity: Artificial Intelligence and the Death of Capitalism (2016) — the source for the automation argument.
  • The Economist, "Clean energy's dirty secret" (2017) — the bourgeois admission of the renewable energy contradiction.
  • IDOM review of PostCapitalism — linked in the article, providing further theoretical engagement with Mason's argument.

Key Quotes

  1. "The potential impact of today's productive forces — to automate away work, vastly reduce the hours of the working week, and provide a world of plenty for everyone — is being stifled by the nature of the capitalist system; a system based on private ownership over the wealth and technology in society and production for profit."

  2. "As the productive forces approach this infinity of superabundance and infinitesimal of full automation and zero labour time, the laws and dynamics of the capitalist system break down. For the law of value, as explained by Marx, means that as the labour time required in production tends to zero, so too will the value."

  3. "Theoretically, if renewables were to make up 100% of the market, the wholesale price of electricity would fall to zero, deterring all new investment that was not completely subsidised. This, effectively, is a tacit admission from the mouthpiece of the capitalist class that the system they defend has failed."

  4. "With info-capitalism, a monopoly is not just some clever tactic to maximise profit. It is the only way an industry can run. The small number of companies that dominate each sector is striking…Apple's mission statement, properly expressed, is to prevent the abundance of music."

  5. "Today, the main contradiction in modern capitalism is between the possibility of free, abundant socially produced goods, and a system of monopolies, banks and governments struggling to maintain control of over power and information."

  6. "The motor forces of capitalism — competition and production for profit — were once a tremendous driver of progress and innovation. Now they have become an enormous barrier to the development of science and technology."