Capitalism is a bit like a cat. It has nine lives, it’s incredibly fast, and it always seems to land on its feet right when you think it’s about to fall off the ledge. John Cassidy knows this better than most. For thirty years, he’s been watching the gears of the global economy turn from his desk at The New Yorker, and his latest work, John Cassidy Capitalism and Its Critics, is essentially an attempt to figure out why a system that everyone loves to hate is still the only game in town.
Honestly, we’re living through a weird moment. You’ve got people on the far left calling for "degrowth" and billionaire tech moguls on the right basically demanding a return to 19th-century styles of "economic nationalism." It’s a pincer movement. Cassidy’s book arrives right as the post-World War II consensus—that mix of free markets and a safety net—feels like it’s fraying at the edges.
The Idea That Stability Is Actually Dangerous
If you’ve read Cassidy’s earlier stuff, like How Markets Fail, you know he’s a fan of the "heretic" economists. One of his favorites is Hyman Minsky. Minsky had this counterintuitive idea: stability is destabilizing. Think about it. When things are going great for a long time, people get cocky. Bankers start lending money to anyone with a pulse. Investors take on massive debt because they assume the "good times" are the new normal. This leads to what Cassidy often calls "Utopian Economics," where everyone pretends the market is a perfect, self-correcting machine.
Then, the "Minsky Moment" hits.
Everything breaks. The 2008 financial crisis was the ultimate example of this. Cassidy argues that the "critics" are often the only ones who see the crash coming because they aren't blinded by the beauty of the mathematical models. They’re looking at the messy, greedy, irrational reality of human behavior.
Why the Luddites Were Actually Right (Sorta)
We usually use the word "Luddite" as an insult. You know, for the guy who can’t figure out how to use a QR code at a restaurant. But Cassidy goes back to the original Luddites—the 18th-century weavers in England—and paints a much more sympathetic picture.
These weren't just tech-hating grumps. They were skilled workers whose lives were being destroyed by early factory automation. They weren't against "progress" in the abstract; they were against progress that only enriched a few factory owners while they starved.
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The AI Connection
Cassidy makes a pretty bold jump from those weavers to today’s AI revolution. He suggests that we might be seeing a "New Luddism."
- The 1770s: Water-powered looms replaced hand-weavers.
- The 2020s: Generative AI replaces copywriters, lawyers, and coders.
The parallel is spooky. If AI creates a massive shift where all the wealth goes to the people who own the "algorithms" (the new "looms"), the social contract is going to snap. Cassidy’s point is that the critics of the past—people like William Thompson or Flora Tristan—were asking the same questions we are asking now: Who is this wealth actually for?
A Kaleidoscopic History of Dissent
One of the coolest things about how Cassidy approaches John Cassidy Capitalism and Its Critics is that he doesn't just stick to the famous names like Karl Marx or John Maynard Keynes. He digs up the "forgotten" rebels.
There's Eric Williams, who wrote about how slavery wasn't just a moral horror but a foundational fuel for early British capitalism. There's J.C. Kumarappa, an Indian economist who argued for a "Ghandian" economy based on local villages rather than global trade.
Cassidy treats these critics not as people who wanted to "destroy" the world, but as people who were trying to save it from its own worst impulses. He calls capitalism "protean," meaning it’s constantly changing its shape. It survives because it eventually absorbs the ideas of its critics. We have the eight-hour workday and child labor laws not because CEOs were feeling nice, but because the critics made it impossible to ignore the alternative.
The Crisis of Legitimacy
Why are we talking about this now? Because of 2016. Cassidy has mentioned in interviews that the rise of Bernie Sanders on the left and Donald Trump on the right was a massive wake-up call. For decades, the "neoliberal" view—the idea that global trade and free markets would solve everything—was the only "adult" view in the room.
Then, suddenly, it wasn't.
Voters in the Rust Belt and the UK (Brexit) basically said, "This system isn't working for me." Whether you agree with their solutions or not, the critique was real. Cassidy argues we’ve reached a "crisis of legitimacy." When the top 1% owns more than the bottom 90%, people start looking for the exit door.
What Actually Happens Next?
Cassidy isn't a doomer. He doesn't think capitalism is ending tomorrow. But he does think the "hands-off" version of it is dead.
He points toward a few potential futures:
- Monopoly Tech Capitalism: A world where a few AI giants run everything and we all live on a Universal Basic Income (UBI) "allowance."
- State Capitalism: The Chinese model, where the government calls the shots and the market is just a tool for national power.
- The New Social Bargain: A return to a more "Keynesian" style where the government steps in to regulate AI, tax the winners, and rebuild the middle class.
Actionable Insights for the Modern Reader
If you’re trying to navigate this weird economy, here is what Cassidy’s perspective suggests you should do:
Don't trust the "Utopians." If someone tells you a market is "perfectly efficient" or "self-correcting," they’re usually selling something. Always look for the hidden risks and the externalities (like pollution or social unrest) that the models ignore.
Watch the "Minsky Moments." Pay attention when debt levels get crazy. Whether it’s student loans, corporate debt, or the next tech bubble, "stability" is usually the mask that risk wears before it bites.
Understand the "Luddite" Reality. If your job is being disrupted by AI, don't just "learn to code." Understand the political landscape. The original Luddites failed because they didn't have the vote. Today, we do. The future of work is a political choice, not just a technological one.
Diversify your "Intellectual Portfolio." Don't just read the Wall Street Journal. Read the critics. Understanding why people are angry at the system helps you predict how the system will change next.
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Capitalism survives because it’s a shapeshifter. The critics provide the blueprint for the next version. If you want to know what the economy of 2030 looks like, stop looking at the spreadsheets and start listening to the people who are currently trying to fix the system.
To understand the long-term shifts in our economic reality, start by tracking the legislative moves around AI regulation and wealth taxation in your local jurisdiction. These are the modern "factory acts" that will define the next century of work.