Pluto in Capricorn: The Death of Capitalism?

Astrologer Richard Nolle posted a link to this article on Facebook:

At the very moment of its ultimate triumph, capitalism will experience the most exquisite of deaths.

This is the belief of political adviser and author Jeremy Rifkin, who argues the current economic system has become so successful at lowering the costs of production that it has created the very conditions for the destruction of the traditional vertically integrated corporation.

Rifkin, who has advised the European Commission, the European Parliament and heads of state, including German chancellor Angela Merkel, says:

No one in their wildest imagination, including economists and business people, ever imagined the possibility of a technology revolution so extreme in its productivity that it could actually reduce marginal costs to near zero, making products nearly free, abundant and absolutely no longer subject to market forces.

With many manufacturing companies surviving only on razor thin margins, they will buckle under competition from small operators with virtually no fixed costs.

“We are seeing the final triumph of capitalism followed by its exit off the world stage and the entrance of the collaborative commons,” Rifkin predicts.

The creation of the collaborative commons

From the ashes of the current economic system, he believes, will emerge a radical new model powered by the extraordinary pace of innovation in energy, communication and transport.

“This is the first new economic system since the advent of capitalism and socialism in the early 19^th century so it’s a remarkable historical event and it’s going to transform our way of life fundamentally over the coming years,” Rifkin says. “It already is; we just haven’t framed it.”

Some sectors, such as music and media, have already been disrupted as a result of the internet’s ability to let individuals and small groups compete with the major established players. Meanwhile, the mainstreaming of 3D printing and tech advances in logistics – such as the installation of billions of intelligent sensors across supply chains – means this phenomenon is now spreading from the virtual to the physical world, Rifkin says.

read more here…  This really fits in perfectly with the astrological cycle of Pluto (destruction and rebirth) in Capricorn (social structures and monetary systems) in a challenging square to Uranus (disruption and revolution) in Aries (individual rights and liberty) over the past eight or nine years.

Pluto will leave Capricorn for Aquarius in 2023 which is only seven years away from the writing of this article.  I’ll be writing more about this of course, but since Aquarius rules technology and innovation, those areas of human existence are likely to be in the forefront of human consciousness.  Scientists have long said that this period of time (2023-2043) will correspond with the “Singularity” -the point at which technological (artificial) intelligence exceeds human intelligence. (Follow the link to my other articles on this subject.)

Since the financial systems of today’s global powers are not based on actual currency but instead on concepts and trust, these systems can be easily transformed with technological and ideological changes.  The introduction of Bitcoin, a currency which was not controlled by any governmental body and introduced in 2009 just after Pluto entered Capricorn, is a harbinger of what is to come in a future where technology liberates humans (Pluto in Aquarius) from the shackles of corporations and governmental restrictions (Pluto in Capricorn).  As rosy as that sounds, Aquarius does have a dark side – the pursuit of perfection and individual liberties can easily erode the cohesion of communities and bring about a sort of Mad Max-type chaos.

The idea of “collaborative commons” represents Aquarius at its highest form of expression, where everyone works together for a common good.  Let’s all hope that Pluto’s entry into Aquarius can enable this vision of the future as a Utopian solution to some of the miseries that capitalism has brought to the world, rather than the dystopia of an anarchic deterioration of human community.