MilovanInnovation takes you – straight into the core of the fundamental contradiction of contemporary capitalism, through the neo-Marxist analysis of Moishe Postone. At a time when the New Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) is gaining momentum, and generative AI and LLM models threaten even highly paid creative professions, Postone’s thesis of the “anachronism of value” becomes indispensable for understanding the crisis of labour – and the world to come.
📜 The Roots of the Idea – From the “Fragment on Machines” to Rosdolsky
The story begins in the winter of 1857–1858. In a feverish burst of creativity, Karl Marx is writing the manuscript Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. Hidden within it lies the famous “Fragment on Machines” – a section in which Marx analyses the ultimate consequences of automation and anticipates the point at which social knowledge becomes a direct productive force, what he calls the general intellect.
The Grundrisse, however, remained in the shadow of Capital for decades, until the Ukrainian Marxist Roman Rosdolsky published his monumental study on the making of Marx’s Capital. It was Rosdolsky who first highlighted the crucial importance of the Grundrisse for understanding Marx’s critique of political economy. His work opened the door for a new generation of Marxist readings – among which Moishe Postone’s stands out.
💡 Postone’s Thesis – When Value Becomes Anachronistic
In his magnum opus Time, Labor and Social Domination (1993), and later in an essay directly addressing the crisis of value, the Canadian Marxist theorist Moishe Postone develops a radical reinterpretation of Marx. The core thread of his analysis is as follows:
- Value is measured by labour time – Under capitalism, the value of a commodity is not determined by its usefulness, but exclusively by the amount of abstract human labour expended in its production, measured by socially necessary labour time. Postone consistently separates material wealth (use-values) from value.
- Technological progress erodes that very value – In the race for profit, capital constantly introduces machines, automation, AI. It temporarily shortens individual labour time, but in the long run this becomes the new social standard. When everyone produces faster, the socially necessary labour time for producing commodities falls.
- A fundamental paradox emerges – Society becomes ever richer (in material terms), yet the total value that capital can appropriate tends to decline. The measure of value – socially necessary labour time – becomes anachronistic. The very foundation of valuation, upon which the entire system of wages, profits and employment rests, becomes historically obsolete.
From this insight springs one of Postone’s most original concepts – capital as an “automatic subject”. Interest, profit and rent begin to act as though they have a life of their own, independent of human labour. Capital becomes the driver of itself, and capitalists are nothing but its “masks”. Postone calls on us to understand emancipation from capitalism precisely as the liberation of humanity from the compulsion to measure its own time through labour.
🤖 2026 – When AI Brings Postone’s Theses into the Daylight
Now we reach the crucial point. Industry 4.0 and generative AI are not merely a “technical” matter, but above all a structural acceleration of the contradiction described. And what we are seeing in 2026 is the following:
- Mass endangerment of creative jobs. Numerous studies published in recent months indicate that one in three creative jobs is disappearing under the onslaught of generative artificial intelligence. It is already openly said that this year marks the end of design and other creative functions as standalone professions within companies. This threat is no longer limited to “blue collars” – it encompasses writers, composers, translators, programmers, visual artists, sound engineers and many others.
- A gap in perceptions. While some estimates suggest that AI will, in the long run, create many new jobs, deep existential anxiety prevails among creators. Almost all surveyed creators state that their work has already been used to train AI models without consent, and the vast majority of musicians believe that unregulated AI directly threatens their livelihoods.
- The industrial paradox. As productivity rises, the purchasing power of ever more people declines. Capitalism must sell commodities in order to realise profit, but as fewer people work, fewer can actually buy those commodities. A vicious circle emerges, which Postone diagnoses as a structural, not a cyclical, crisis.
⚠️ Political Implications and Postone’s Warning
In his analysis, Postone directly connects this economic contradiction with the rise of right-wing populism: Trump, Brexit and similar movements are no accident, but an expression of a deep crisis of legitimacy of liberal democracies, caused precisely by the separation of the economic and political spheres. What was happening in 2016–2017 is now deepening and spreading across the whole of Europe and the world.
When people feel that the ground beneath their feet has slipped away, that their job, salary and social status are no longer attainable, they reach for those political options that promise a quick and rough return to a “lost world”. Postone warns us that this is an illusory solution that does not touch the root cause – the cause lies in the value-form itself.
🌀 Conclusion: Facing a Black Hole or a New Era?
On this May 1st, 2026, the question is not whether a crisis will come – it is already here, manifesting daily in the extinction of jobs, falling incomes, and the loss of meaning. The question is: how will we respond?
If, as Postone argues, value can no longer be measured by labour time, then concepts such as “wage”, “employment”, “job” are historical relics. Insisting on them in a world where humans have become superfluous to the process of valorisation will only accelerate the plunge into an abyss of inequality, misery and social absurdity.
The alternative that Postone offers – but which he does not consider inevitable, merely possible – is a radical transformation of the social framework: the liberation of wealth from the shackles of labour time, the building of a society in which human existence is not measured by the quantity of hours sold. Some call this a post-work society; others see a path through universal basic income and the expansion of collective forms of ownership.
What is certain is this: we stand on the edge of a black hole’s event horizon. We can choose to fall in, repeating the mistakes of the 1930s, or we can admit that the emperor has no clothes – but that his old garments can no longer meet the demands of a new age.
Happy May Day – in the hope that we will one day also celebrate the birthday of a society in which the human being matters more than value.
As always, MilovanInnovation remains dedicated to the technical and engineering analysis of a changing world – and to its social consequences. If you appreciate this angle, share this post and follow us for more such analyses throughout 2026.
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