Capitalism morphs into imperialism when the financial economy comes under government protection the way the real economy had been. When the state extends its military power to defend the returns to risk capital over and above that of physical capital, when speculative capital sets the benchmark for the national rate of profit then the market stops functioning as an isolated institution and comes to serve as the primary instrument for social organization. Superfluous wealth then becomes the driver of both the economic and the military order in the society. That’s when abundance comes to serve as the basis of economic activity in the society but that activity is no longer managed by competition: it comes to be shaped by power.
So the question is when abundance takes hold and competition loses its potency, what replaces it: power or creative energy?
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