40 KWARTALNIK NAUK O PRZEDSIĘBIORSTWIE — 2017 / 2 Stanisław Kowalczyk Jeremy Rifkin’s utopia of the economy of abundance

The bankruptcy of the neoliberal fact that wants to understand thought as some people wish, or bru- everything, and secondly, from the fact tal distortions of its essence as others that modern people expect that the econ- would prefer, triggered a series of dis- omists will tell them what is right and cussions, proposals, and ideas on the what is wrong [Sedláček, 2015]. future of the world economy. Precisely Such an interesting, new, and in some – the world economy, and not the glo- respects innovative concept is the idea bal economy, as the crisis, destruction of the zero marginal cost society and or maybe even bankruptcy reached the the economy of abundance of J. Rifkin world economy based on the neoliberal [2016]. However, the problem is that the theory, and the globalisation is still do- Rifkin’s vision is fragmentary – it applies ing well, whether they like it or not... only to certain areas of the essence of soci- ety and economy, and some proposals are In these conditions, the new propos- even self-contradictory or unsupported by als and scenarios for the further develop- evidence. ment of the situation in the world eco- In accordance with the intention of nomy should not come as a surprise. The the author of these words, the comments discussion is centred on the possibility of below are not a review of the J. Rifkin’s moving away from the current paradigm work, but a voice in the discussion on based on the market mechanism and the the future of the world economy, possible homo oeconomicus model, meaning the directions of changes and development selfishness driving the economy and the trends. tendency of individuals to maximise their The main Rifkin’s thesis is concerned usability towards the empathic and moral with the end of the age of capitalism as cooperation of equal prosumers. In other the way of organisation of the society and words, will the thesis cited by B. Man- the economy (business). The capitalist sys- deville (1670-1733) remain true that all is tem, which for more than ten generations false and deceitful [Mandeville, 1705], or was a fascinating vision of human , will the ethics be appreciated again, both and a determinant of social, political and in everyday as well as in social (economic) economic life, has reached its peak and life? entered a period of decline. Its dominance In the group of the most active think- is supposed to end around the half of the ers among those searching for the new 21st century, although, as stated by Rifkin ways and possible paradigms – natu- himself, the signs indicating a fundamen- rally – there are economists. According tal transformation into the new economic to T. Sedláček, it results firstly from the system are still weak, and almost anec- On the margin 41 dotal. The age of capitalism is going to be sanctions and penalties for non-compli- followed by Cooperative Commons. ance with the rules of functioning, laying The phenomenon of the zero marginal down certain limits of goods possible to cost quickly spreading to new industries be enjoyed, having relevant authorities, is supposed to lead to the new economic monitoring the activities of the commons paradigm. To be precise, let us add, in the and their members, and finally, having words of Rifkin – almost zero marginal developed, adopted and enforced meth- costs. And this means that the consumers ods of solving internal conflicts. will receive and not purchase an increas- According to Rifkin, the contempo- ing portion of the products and services. rary community is a place where billions And even if they would purchase them – of people are strongly involved in social it would be for the minimum price. In- aspects of life, creating more what can be evitably, this will lead to the evolution of called a global cooperative commons. the economy of scarcity into the economy Of course, the question arises, what of abundance, as a dominating model of determines the superiority of the commu- organisation of the future economic life. nities over the institution of the market? This vision is absolutely attractive and The equivalence of the participants of the compelling. Only the question is if it is commons is quite widely considered to real and possible? be this fundamental property. People no This new economic paradigm will longer want to tolerate market institutions indicate some key trends in the scope of and companies, which are vertically or- organisation of the economy, and the en- ganised, have strictly defined hierarchies, tire society. The transition from the domi- where the main benefits are appropriated nance of the market (private sector) and by a narrow group of “supervisors”. They ownership – to the dominance of cooper- strive for such organisation of mutual re- ative commons is superior – the commons lations, where the benefits are divided in that are intended to replace the ineffective accordance with their contribution (mate- state and the greedy market. rial and intellectual). The capitalist mar- ket is based on selfishness; on the other From market hand, the social commons – on the need to collaborative commons to establish links and to share with others. Communities have a long history in Of course, there is no evidence that the economic reality of the world. Ge- the commons are or will be a more effec- nealogically, the community was the first tive way of management than the market organised form of human relationships. mechanism in the future. For these rea- However, what is going to replace the sons, also Rifkin argues that the capital- market in the organisation of the econo- ist market is unlikely to disappear, but it my in the near future is a different, new will no longer define the economic plans form of community. of civilisation, and still it will remain an The new forms of collaborative com- important niche player. mons (so-called social commons) are in When addressing the role of commu- principle communities others than those nities in the history of civilisation, Rifkin known from the history – feudal commu- strongly emphasises the role of communi- nities. It is no longer an “open pasture”, ties in feudal agriculture. He even claims ruthlessly used by all shepherds – a pas- that in the past, the community turned ture open to all – to use the example of out to be a relatively effective manage- G. Hardin [1968]. The new commons are ment model in agricultural communities organised institutions with the system of producing for their own needs. This po- 42 KWARTALNIK NAUK O PRZEDSIĘBIORSTWIE — 2017 / 2

sition raises serious doubts on what the when the communities were function- author had in mind, as it is well known ing, basing on the wide social obligation that the European feudal agriculture was instead of the narrow own interests, or based on the manorial system [Pretty, superiority of the collective over the in- 1990, Jezierski, Leszczyńska, 2003], in dividual interest of particular members Poland taking the form of royal or ducal of the cooperative. Yet, Rifkin believes awards, based on the succession right and and still argues in favour of the revival of not on the community system [Gloger, cooperatives and cooperative movements. 1985]. The basic form of organisation was A form that would have a new chance of a peasant farm, levied with fees, chang- existence in the welfare economics thanks ing in time, paid to the feudal lord, and to the Internet of Things (IoT), which cre- in Poland to the landlord. Since the 15th ates the necessary infrastructure for small century, in a substantial part of the coun- and medium-sized enterprises. tries, especially Central European coun- tries producing for export, the basic unit From ownership to access in agriculture was a grange [Jezierski, A second dimension of evolution of Leszczyńska, 2003]. the capitalist market model into the mo- del with the domination of cooperative Of course, agricultural communities communities is a gradual departure from existed during the period of feudalism, the exchange economy towards sharing and in a vestigial form in some regions, economy. Naturally, even in the case of they survived until the modern times. the market model and the domination of However, they were never a dominant corporations, there are significant, but less form of organisation of agricultural pro- and less numerous areas separated from duction in feudalism. They mostly applied the private property, such as oceans, lakes, to such types of agricultural land as pas- forests, mountains, roads, bridges, air, etc. tures, meadows, watercourses, or forests. that is public goods. In the last decades, Naturally, it does not mean that there was the state shifted a significant number of no other cooperation or mutual help be- these goods to private (corporate) owner- tween the farmers. However, what is puz- ship. According to Rifkin, it was the final zling is why Rifkin completely skipped renunciation of responsibility for the wel- production communities so regionally ex- fare of the society by the state. The society tensive in their time, which included the (consumers) weakened in this way, recog- agricultural cooperatives in the former nised the need and the necessity to organ- socialist countries. Agricultural coopera- ise itself into structures that would protect tives, organised exactly on the model of them against the omnipotence of corpora- the production communities, have com- tions. They saw their chances in the eco- pletely failed as the form of organisation nomic commons, giving the possibility of of production in agriculture. Even when satisfying many needs by channels that we take into account that in some pe- do not depend so much on the powers of riod and in a defined scope, under some the market. An additional driving force, greater or lower control of the authori- on the one hand, remains the fact of high ties, they departed from the main idea of costs of acquisition of many goods, and cooperation. But they also received quite on the other hand, exceptionally short pe- significant subsidies from the same state. riod of their operation – it applies to, for In spite of that, in the vast majority, they example, cars, that are used for less than were making losses, did not prove any ex- 10% of the time of their existence on aver- traordinary engagement of the members age, and for more than 90% of this time, Jeremy Rifkin’s utopia of the economy of abundance 43 they stand idle. It is for these reasons, an the global sharing economy not to face increasing number of people decide to the global apathy, not to say – the global satisfy their different needs by means of destruction. purchase of access to and not ownership of things. This trend includes new sectors From vertical integration like transport, premises, tourist travels, to network offices, communication, rooms, or even Another dimension of evolution of ex- sofas, toys, ties, home gardens, agricul- change economy into sharing economy is tural parcels, etc. concerned with the new form of organisa- Thus, the exchange value is substituted tion of economic structures. The capital- on the market with the value consisting ist system has demonstrated its superiority in the possibility to share it with the com- over the feudal system, among others, by munity. As a result, less and less goods recommending a new form of organisa- are purchased under the market exchange tion of economic structures. The main economy, and more under the sharing direction of the changes in this scope economy. It is a specific form of regaining was a gradual and increasingly advanced the public space – economic, social, and vertical integration of production chains, cultural – from the power of the market in the place of individual manufacturers and the private sector. In this way, accord- (craft workshops) – the chains connecting ing to Rifkin, the evolution of attitudes the entities, companies and people dealing happens and the traditional dream of rags with manufacturing of specific products to riches is being supplanted by a new and product groups. In this way, a craft dream of a sustainable quality of life; but workshop gradually became a manufacto- the sharing economy and access, instead ry, and then, a factory producing usually of ownership, do not guarantee an equal a homogeneous product group, to finally quality of life to all. First, because access transform into a concern and a conglo- costs as well; second, it often requires a merate. A vertically integrated company definitely larger activity and operability has become popular in the last quarter of from consumers to fulfil their needs at the 19th century, and a dominant model a satisfying level, than in the case of the in the 20th century. market exchange and taking over of own- What distinguishes this evolution is ership. systematic strengthening of the relations Access instead of ownership not only between particular elements of the or- does not solve many problems from the ganisation and the developed hierarchical point of view of the individual, but also structure. As a result, this has led to the of consumers as a whole. For example, emergence of modern corporations, which it does not answer the question on what are transnational as a principle (TNCs), is to replace the impulses to innovations with an even unimaginable economic and introducing new products/services so and political power. The companies that typical for the mechanism of the market can organise their economic, social, en- competition. Because, with all due re- vironmental and political surrounding to spect, the Rifkin’s claim that it will be the achieve only maximum benefits for them- desire to improve human life cannot be selves are scarcely interested in the con- treated seriously. Even when we assume sumer, society, country or a region of their that a man is not such a “selfish market operation. animal” at all, still, relying on the forces The economic power of corporations triggered by the willingness to do general is demonstrated by the fact that in 2014, good can turn out to be insufficient for on the list of the 100 largest countries 44 KWARTALNIK NAUK O PRZEDSIĘBIORSTWIE — 2017 / 2

and corporations in terms of income, cost? This approach is also supported by there were 63 corporations and 37 coun- Rifkin. tries. It is worth emphasising that the Its problem is that the price based on predominance of corporations system- the marginal cost of the product does not atically grows, as on the same list for the cover the initial costs of the project, if we year 2000, there were 51 corporations and consider the issue in view of the resources 49 countries [The 100 largest, 2015]. To or fixed streaming costs. Thus, the entre- draw right conclusions, the deliberations preneur does not recover some of the in- cannot ignore such an important segment vested capital, and this means that there of the market sector as the corporations. is no source of a complete restoration of production conditions – the source of re- A new trend in the scope of organisa- investment. Rifkin refers to the polemic tion of the economy and companies aims between H. Hotelling and R.H. Coase at building networks, and virtually net- on financing the costs of investments in work communities. The network organ- infrastructure and public goods. Hotell- isation of economic structures is not a ing [1938] believed that this type of in- new phenomenon in the world economy. vestments should be financed from taxes We are dealing with it for 20-30 years. So (mainly on income, inheritance, and far, it had mainly the microeconomic di- land). In turn, Coase argued that the mension, i.e. it was concerned with the or- price of the use of public goods should ganisation model of the basic production cover not only the marginal costs, so it unit, other than the vertically hierarchi- should be higher than these costs, by an cal company. Thus, network companies additional charge, paid depending on the emerged, and the enterprise is more and intensity of the use of these goods. There- more often defined as a network node. A fore, Coase [1946] called for a third solu- new networking dimension means build- tion, i.e. neither the marginal nor average ing a network on a macroeconomic scale – costs, but a multi-part pricing model. To a common communication, logistic or en- present the whole picture, it is worth re- ergy network. This is how the networking minding that Hotelling [1938] himself commons that aspire to the status of the did not deny that the product price should basic organisation unit of the economy of not cover the fixed costs, and even should the future are created. cover the interests on the accompanying and hypothetical investments, but the op- From average to marginal costs timum of the general benefits is obtained The issue of marginal costs is un- by the society when the sale is according doubtedly one of the important fields of to the marginal costs. the analysed Rifkin’s concepts. Basically, Rifkin brings the discussion on the the entire consideration on the transmis- advantages of marginal costs to the pre- sion from the economy of shortage to the sent day. He relates it mainly to the basic economy of abundance is based on the dimension of the new economy of abun- theory of marginal costs. It is in fact an dance, that is the Internet of Things (IoT). old problem of economics, whether the The initial costs of creating infrastructure product prices on the market should re- are surely significant, but the marginal flect the level of the average costs or the costs of information production have be- marginal costs? Because, if the manufac- come irrelevant. This convinces him to turer obtains subsequent portions of the the predominance of marginal costs. Zero product at the marginal cost, what is his – or to be more precise – almost zero mar- right to request payment of the average ginal costs already today apply to such Jeremy Rifkin’s utopia of the economy of abundance 45 industries as publishing, communica- concept of the society of abundance, at tion, entertainment, and more and more least the following must be mentioned: to . Subsequently, there Key assumptions for the concept of will be spatial printing and on-line higher the economy of abundance education. • The contemporary, and especially the But Rifkin does not stop there. Fur- future economy will be based on the ther, he states that in the end, the mar- open source model, which means free ginal costs will be reduced almost to zero, access to technologies and products, which will eliminate the profit and will and as an effect, almost unlimited make the exchange of assets on markets economic growth; to be unnecessary in the case of many • the open source model is contrary to the products. When the marginal cost is close intellectual property right, as an effect to zero, it means that the scarcity is taken of which, the category of property over by abundance. Everyone can secure rights will gradually lose its impor- much of what they need without having tance to finally disappear; patents and to pay for it. And this will happen when copyrights flourish in the economy the “extreme productivity” kicks off for organised around shortage, and are good. Then, everyone will have access to useless in the economy organised production means, so the question about around abundance; their property and controlling them will • the existence of the third industrial be irrelevant, and capitalism along with it revolution (the economy of abun- [Rifkin, 2016]. In this situation, a ques- dance) requires less financial capital, tion must be asked if it is a real forecast or and more social capital, scales up a thesis taken straight from the Utopian laterally rather than vertically, and it socialists? is best introduced in the community management and not in the market Attempt to sum up the concept of mechanism; therefore, in the economy economy of abundance of abundance, the private sector and As I stated above, the concept of the the market mechanism are in niche economy of abundance, or the society of positions; marginal costs of Rifkin, is a proposal • effectiveness of a given management different from others. This distinctiveness model and its prevalence over others consists in, among others, the adopted as- depends mostly on the context; private sumptions and their feasibility, and finally property is effective in some areas; also the adopted reasoning. The main dimen- public administration copes well with sions of the evolution of the modern world the supervision of many public goods; economy into the economy of abundance the best management model for the were the subject of the above analysis. third revolution (the society of abun- Most of these dimensions (trends) are not dance) is community management surprising, as they occur also in the pro- with the participation of the govern- posals and concepts of other authors. In ment administration; although some the case of Rifkin, the manner of argu- support of the market forces must be mentation, and especially the conclusions anticipated; drawn from the analyses, may provoke • the networking commons is the thoughts and both positive and negative governing body for the new paradigm reflections. based on cooperation; When trying to sum up the assump- • the third revolution and the society tions and findings that are crucial to the of abundance means the end of work 46 KWARTALNIK NAUK O PRZEDSIĘBIORSTWIE — 2017 / 2

in mass production and services, and of obstacles that may delay, or even pre- in the sector of knowledge; the end of vent the arrival of the era of cooperation. work – mainly on the free market and But with the unwavering commitment, in the public sector – as anticipated lack of costly mistakes or failures, and by the Author already in 1995 in the with a little bit of luck, the race to the new elaboration entitled: The End of Work economic paradigm can be won (Rifkin). [1995]; on the other hand, Rifkin The optimism of this Author, as he writes, notes that the social (sharing) economy stems not only from the development of is and will be less automated than the technology and the history of human nar- market economy and will need many rative. [But] because ... homo empathicus. employees. And to feel empathy, according to Rifkin, is to civilise and to civilise is to feel empa- And finally, the most radical assump- thy. Only the question is whether a man is tion: for the society of the future to reach or will be in the future actually homo em- the state of sustainable abundance, the pathicus, focused on the general interest size of the population of the entire Earth and determined to subordinate their own must be reduced. However, the work does interests to it, or whether, as written by not provide any specific figures in the David Elkind [2011], homo averiticus will scope of the necessary reduction of the win? In the contemporary world, we are world population. observing the ongoing battle between hu- Key arrangements (findings) for the man values of homo empathicus, and mar- concept of the economy of abundance ket values and economic benefits of homo • connecting of everything with every- averiticus, and so far, everything indicates thing into the global network moti- that homo empathicus loses this battle. It vated by productivity is increasingly should be emphasised that it is a pillar of moving us towards the age of almost the concept of the community society of free goods and services; abundance. • community entrepreneurship, ope- Moreover, as Rifkin says, hundreds of rating between profit and non-profit millions of human lives – and I think that option of business today, will gradually even billions – start to treat others as »one- move towards the non-profit organisa- selves«. It sounds more fancy than real. Yet tion; Rifkin himself insists and does not claim • the new (sharing) economy will opti- that the era of abundance will lead human mise the overall prosperity by means race to utopia. However, consciously or of integrated networks within the not, he himself gets into utopia. cooperative commons; Such reflection can be made regard- • the economy of abundance is the only ing numerous components of the concept way to ensure a sustainable future to of the society of abundance, and I will the human kind. limit myself here to the issue of satisfy- ing the future demand for food. Today, Is it real to implement the concept of there are regions of the world, where the the society of abundance with these as- calorie intake per capita significantly ex- sumptions? Obviously, it is difficult to give ceeds the needs of a man, and at the same a clear answer. It is mainly due to the fact time, considerable areas of malnutrition of rather unreal nature of many assump- and hunger. It is even discussed by Rifkin tions. It seems that even Rifkin himself is himself. The most classic example of the aware of this risk, when he states that the first group is the United States, where the road to the economy of abundance is full society absorbs several times more of the Jeremy Rifkin’s utopia of the economy of abundance 47 global bio-capacity than the US popu- Rifkin does not take into account at least lation (about five times more). Thus, a the following issues and areas that are im- natural question arises about the possibil- portant for the determination of the fu- ity of elimination of this chief problem ture strategies of the development of the of modern times, that is the problem of global society and the global economy: hunger. Additionally, according to many • the opinion of the transnational corpo- forecasts, including the reports of The rations on the issue of marginalisation International Food Policy Research Insti- of their economic position and the im- tute cited by Rifkin, it is indicated that by portance of the market mechanism: it 2050 in many regions of the world there seems that TNCs themselves will yield will be a decrease in the production of to communities and social entrepre- many agricultural products, running to neurship, and then disappear from the several dozen percent. All this requires economic reality; radical actions, considerable investments, • the issue of the future of the intel- and commitment of countries and in- lectual property rights: basing the ternational organisations (FAO, WHO, future economy on the open source World Bank) to avoid an escalation of model virtually means elimination hunger in the future. Meanwhile, Rifkin of these rights, elimination of pat- points to the importance of home gardens ents and copyrights; although Rifkin and, according to him, suddenly deve- recognises the contradiction of these loping initiatives promoting local and or- two models, in his deliberations, he ganic farming, functioning in the USA in completely omits the manner in which the form of farming communities, that is the copyrights would be eliminated, Community-supported agriculture – CSA ignoring the revolutionary nature of (the idea alternative to the conventional such a proposal; food market, thus a system of production • the problem of distribution of national and distribution of food based on a direct wealth, including financing of social cooperation of a farmer-producer and a spending from the budget: the role of consumer), as a way of ensuring the sup- the budget, according to Rifkin, in ply of food. On the other hand, according the future will grow, at least due to to the data of the US Department of Ag- the need to finance the initial invest- riculture, in 2012, there were only 12,600 ment costs in the economy based on farms operating in the CSA, which with marginal costs, but in this situation, the 2,109,300 farms in general [USDA, what would be the budget revenue 2012], gives 0.6% of American farms ope- with regard to marginalisation of the rating in this system. Therefore, in any position of the market and the profit case, this form of food production cannot category?; would the almost free goods be treated as a way of feeding people not and services mean also marginalisa- only in the US, but also in other countries tion of the meaning of the payment for – although by all means it is worthy of work or salaries?; who would pay taxes social support. and for what?; would it automatically Apart from quite numerous, rather mean direct acquisition of a part of unlikely assumptions, in some parts com- remuneration by the budget? pletely impossible to achieve, such as the • the position of individual social and postulated reduction of the human po- professional groups in the society of pulation in the concept of the society of the future, the state of social inequali- abundance, many extremely important ties: will the reduction of the market issues have been omitted. In his concept, and the development of community 48 KWARTALNIK NAUK O PRZEDSIĘBIORSTWIE — 2017 / 2

forms mean the disappearance of some business model and the essential “player” social and professional groups, closely in the place of the state which in the last related to the market and the private quarter of the 20th century resigned from sector?; will the anticipated changes to- the majority of prerogatives pertinent to wards the society of abundance mean it, and the market which turned out to be also the elimination of social inequali- a not entirely effective form of the organi- ties?; if so, what will be the course of sation of the economy and society. In the these changes? – because, there is con- near future, this place, voluntarily aban- siderable evidence, that the state and doned (by the state) or gradually elimi- the private sector must firstly consent nated (like the market), will be taken over to the reduction of these inequalities; by the cooperative commons. The form • economic relations between the rich based on the voluntary cooperation of in- and poor countries: will further mar- dependent consumers/producers, or how ginalisation of state organs and govern- it is often defined now – prosumers. The ment administration mean gradual cooperation based mainly on sharing, ac- limiting of economic, trade, and finan- cess instead of ownership, paying only cial relations between the countries, marginal costs, idea of the open source and including the poor countries?; as it is the peer to peer model of communication. hard to expect that the functions of The concept itself, though, is determined political cooperation will be taken over by too many assumptions that cannot be from the state organs and the trade achieved. Moreover, it is a concept sim- contacts from companies and corpora- plified to a few phenomena. A humorous tions by the social commons; simplification would be to assume that • finally, as I mentioned above, accord- the society of abundance and the mar- ing to the concept of the society of ginal zero costs is IoT + 3D, that is the abundance, how will be the demand Internet and spatial printing. for food met in the future, in the view Apart from those critical remarks con- of climate changes, anticipated growth tained in this article, a consequence of a and not the reduction of the world different point of view represented by the population, elimination of a number author of these words, it must be stated, of private investments in the biological that a number of phenomena analysed by progress, or eventually direct invest- Rifkin is presented legitimately and ac- ments in the development of food curately. These undoubtedly include the production carried out by the private considerations on the future of the Inter- sector? net, networking in the organisation of the economic activity or the wide possibili- As indicated, these are only some se- ties of spatial printing. Also the future of lected issues that were not sufficiently sharing economy seems favourable, and explained or were even omitted in the whether it will become the dominant concept of the society of abundance based business model from this century is yet on marginal costs. Without the explana- another matter. As usual, it will be veri- tion of at least these issues, the total of the fied by the future. concept ranks closer to utopia than to the Apart from the above considerations forecast based on arguments. that make up the area of the interest of economics, it must be emphasised that Conclusions many of Rifkin’s findings prove – no mat- What is undoubtedly valuable in the ter whether made knowingly and deliber- Rifkin’s concept is the search for the new ately by the Author, or accidentally – that Jeremy Rifkin’s utopia of the economy of abundance 49 the book also functions as a publication may be encouraging. Although these are created to uplift hearts. Because the faith the issues of philosophy or ethics, because in human empathy, placing the common in terms of moral issues, as written by interest above their own interest by peo- T. Sedláček [2015], economics does not ple, or treating others as oneselves, and want to know anything. Besides, a natural finally the conviction about the need to question arises whether the findings relat- free themselves from the power of the in- ed to the human nature are actually real, visible hand of the market for joint action, or are they just a wishful thinking?

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Dr hab. Stanisław Kowalczyk, prof. SGH, Warsaw School of Economics, Institute of Market and Competition. Translated by: mgr Monika Borawska