Industrial Capitalism Needed Us. Primitive Accumulation Doesn’t.

Oligarchs think of us as surplus labor. Silicon Valley thinks of us as a “permanent underclass.” And if they think they don’t need us, everything changes.

May 18, 2026

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a river running through a city next to tall buildings — Photo by Jason Jeandron on Unsplash

We can’t afford blindness to the world-historical forces transforming the foundations of our reality.

Here’s my terrifying gist of the big picture: The oligarchic form of capitalism that dominates today (financialized, rentier-based, asset-inflating at the top, debt-fueled at the bottom) doesn’t need a mass workforce.1 …

Industrial Capitalism Needed Us. Primitive Accumulation Doesn’t.

Oligarchs think of us as surplus labor. Silicon Valley thinks of us as a “permanent underclass.” And if they think they don’t need us, everything changes.

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