Surplus capital seizes low-cost assets and converts them to profit

Evidence

Social theorist David Harvey builds on Arendt’s insight with his notion of “accumulation by dispossession”: “What accumulation by dispossession does is to release a set of assets… at very low (and in some instances zero) cost. Overaccumulated capital can seize hold of such assets and immediately turn them to profitable use.” He adds that entrepreneurs who are determined to “join the system” and enjoy “the benefits of capital accumulation” are often the ones who drive this process of dispossession into new, undefended territories. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 314

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Harvey’s ‘accumulation by dispossession’ — the mechanism Zuboff will map onto behavioral data as the undefended territory.
• XREF: Harvey’s ‘new, undefended territories’ directly anticipates Zuboff’s chapter-one framing of behavioral surplus as an unchallenged frontier. — connects to: Crises are met by primitive accumulation that privatizes public assets — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 106; Post-2008 low interest rates rerouted surplus capital into a tech boom — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 74; Finance generated profits by pumping undervalued asset classes for twenty-five years — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 627 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Finance generated profits by pumping undervalued asset classes for twenty-five years #exemplifies (0.85) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 627
• Private equity asset-stripping is feudal rent extraction, not wealth creation #exemplifies (0.82) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 434