Rising inequality pushes capitalism to extract profit from unpaid social participation.

Evidence

Problem 1: As inequality increases and the majority of people have less money to spend, capitalism needs to find new ways to exploit them that don’t involve buying things. Wealth is becoming less evenly distributed, which means most of it is accumulating at the top while the majority of people experience a loss of wealth. If people buy fewer and fewer things, this can become a problem for capitalism. Fortunately (for capitalism), social quantification introduces a new model in which people can generate profit for corporations simply by participating in social activities, without having to buy commodities. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 166

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Zuboff-era surveillance-capitalism accounts where the behavioral surplus substitutes for wage extraction; a rival-school comparative frame. — connects to: Income inequality and unequal opportunity are inseparable manifestations of capitalist structure — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America:…, 846; Capitalism structurally requires excess for some and deprivation for others — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 1094; Capitalist profit also depends on unpaid domestic labor — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 106 (+6 more)
• DEFINE: Defines the economic logic that makes ‘social quantification’ capitalism’s new extractive frontier.

Broader Connections

• Capitalist profit also depends on unpaid domestic labor #corroborates (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 106
• Capitalism functions by redirecting social reproduction toward its own ends #corroborates (0.80) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 347
• Income inequality and unequal opportunity are inseparable manifestations of capitalist structure #corroborates (0.75) — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 846
• Financialized capitalism productively generates new shared communities rather than merely destroying them #contradicts (0.75) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 98
• Capitalism’s resilience comes from its plasticity in adopting new social forms #qualifies (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1647
• Financialization drives the rise of precarious labor and dissolves social bonds #expands (0.72) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 141
• Capitalism structurally requires excess for some and deprivation for others #expands (0.70) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1094
• Capitalist societies socialize stress-producing conditions while privatizing their cost #corroborates (0.70) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 42