Monopoly, Mergers, and the 'Final Merger'

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On this episode of 1Dime Radio, I am joined once again by Marxist writer Ted Reese, author of Socialism or Extinction and Abundant Material Wealth For All, for a wide-ranging conversation on AI, automation, capitalist breakdown, Marxism, technology, falling profit rates, monopoly, food, health, and the possibility of socialism in the 21st century.

Ted argues that capitalism is not simply politically or morally bad, but increasingly obsolete on its own economic terms. As automation, AI, and productivity push commodity values down, capitalism responds through monopoly, rent-seeking, militarized technology, state dependency, and new forms of social enclosure. We discuss Henryk Grossman, Marx’s theory of capitalist breakdown, whether AI makes Marxism more relevant or obsolete, why the left should not become anti-technology, and whether socialism could emerge through a more peaceful transition rather than a romanticized fantasy of violent revolution.

In the Backroom episode on Patreon, Ted and I continue the conversation with a debate on immigration. I challenge the standard Marxist perspective on migration and argue that mass migration under capitalism is not a path toward international socialism, but a system tied to global capital mobility, labor discipline, brain drain, and the weakening of working-class political organization. We debate whether the current migration regime brings us closer to socialism or further away from it.

Timestamps:

00:00 The Backroom Preview: How Immigration Stops Socialism

03:17  1Dime Radio Intro

04:17  Introducing Ted Reese

06:37  Abundant Material Wealth For All

09:13  Can Socialism Happen Peacefully?

14:22  International Revolution, National Politics, and Capitalist Breakdown

16:23  Automation, AI, and Why Capitalism Becomes Obsolete

23:53  Falling Profit Rates and Capitalist Decline

27:00  Monopoly, Mergers, and the “Final Merger”

30:09  AI, Robots, Neo-Feudalism, and Capitalism’s Demand Problem

36:53  Technology, Progress, and the Anti-Luddite Left

42:47  Palantir, Militarized Tech, and State-Capitalist Dependency

49:01  Why AI Will Get More Expensive

55:46  Is Marxism Obsolete in the Age of AI?

58:21  Capitalism, Food, Health, and Human Decay

01:03:50  Get the Second Half in The Backroom

GUEST:

Ted Reese

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