by
Jaron Lanier
If information age accounting were complete and honest, as much information as possible would be valued in economic terms. If, however, "raw" information, or information that hasn't yet been routed by those who run the most central computers, isn't valued, then a massive disenfranchisement will take place. As the information economy arises, the old specter of a thousand science fiction tales and Marxist nightmares will be brought back from the dead and empowered to apocalyptic proportions. Ordinary people will be unvalued by the new economy, while those closest to the top computers will become hypervaluable.
but NO accounting is EVER complete and honest. That is literally the whole idea behind surplus value, which is the key concept that fuels capitalism. the best we could hope for is some middle ground between "complete and honest" accounting and the free-for-all situation we have now, where corporations sacrifice some of their profit margin in exchange for paying users the minimum amount of money necessary to keep them happy.
His solution to ordinary people being "unvalued by the new economy" is to propose that they be undervalued instead. which is, of course, standard centrist spiel, but hardly the audacious proposal I was expecting from a book like this.