Aesthetic Socialism is the concept of viewing politics with aesthetics as one of the basic principles. I discussed the concept at length in my essay Aristocratic Aesthetic Socialism and show with Matthew Pegas and Giovanni Dannato. Aesthetics signifies one’s class and social status and influences and manipulates peoples decisions and economic output. Extreme inequality in aesthetics shapes the core foundations and social mechanisms of a society.

In politics the debate about the distribution wealth is primarily about the distribution of monetary assets and how to make basic needs widely available. Due to mass production and future trends in automation we are now entering a Post Scarcity Economy where many goods and services can be provided to a larger segment of the population.

We have the wealth, resources, and technology to provide basic services such as food and electronics that can be mass produced. In the future healthcare could be provided cheaply due to automation but the goods that are positional will remain increasingly scarce.

Positional Goods according to Lion of the Blogosphere “are goods and services that people value because of their limited supply and they convey a high relative standing within society.” These resources are positional because they are ranked in value to other resources.

Continue reading Scarcity of Positional Goods is the basis for Aesthetic Socialism →