New economic model is not just cutting costs
china.org.cn / chinagate.cn by Gao Liankui, December 5, 2014 Adjust font size:
The emerging Internet of Things is expediting the change in people's lifestyles, and capitalism as a lifestyle mode will steadily disappear from the stage of history.
Nowadays, it is fashionable for young people to share cars, helping reduce the number of vehicles on city streets. They are also involved in large open network courses, the number of participants in which has reached 6 million people from all over the world.
According to calculations by Cisco Systems, Inc., cost savings and revenue from the Internet of Things will reach US$14.4 trillion by 2020. A report by General Electric is more optimistic, saying that an intelligent industrial network will include almost all economic areas by 2025, influencing "about a half of the global economy."
But inevitable twists and turns lie ahead of establishing a completely new economic system. In the United States, big operators are trying to obstruct legislation to create a free national WiFi network. In Germany, large electrical power groups use national security as an excuse to block cooperatives now creating a collaborative green power grid.
However, the technological changes caused by the social transformation brought about by the third industrial revolution are irresistible, so these obstacles won't last.
Personally, I think we should keep a prudent attitude toward Rifkin's optimism about a zero marginal cost society because he focuses on marginal costs and not real costs, since the world has entered an era of rapidly expanding high living costs. Continuously rising living costs, meanwhile, are decided by people's growing demand for products and services. The more they demand, the higher the living costs.
In order to enjoy the Internet, we must first buy a computer and a mobile phone, and set up a base station, which represent costs. To print the products we need, we probably have to buy 3D printers, which are another cost. To enjoy solar energy, we need to install household solar power equipment, and that's not cheap.
