Let’s try to venture a fragment of interpretation, without any presumption and without the pretense of being able to understand much around a very complex phenomenon such as the recent elections in the United States of America.
Trump’s votes come, for a small part, from industrialists and large entrepreneurs. However, for a large part, they come from the working class, from small entrepreneurs and peasants who live in poorly urbanized areas, therefore in many respects a marginalized world. Their votes are due to deep unease and can be considered votes of protest, even if Trump has continuously declared himself on their side. Forgetting whether or not he did something for his constituents – I just do not know – I can imagine what the deep reasons for people’s protest are. In particular, small producers’ protest arises from the fact that they are constantly cornered economically by those who mediate their products with consumers and live in more urbanized areas. Moreover, they feel blackmailed by subjects who are perceived as profiteers who earn without producing anything, and, in some way, without working. It is intolerable when your work does not allow you to survive while other people succeed in enriching themselves with what you have produced.
Now, intermediation is a structural moment of the market system because it guarantees distribution, which is in turn a job. On the other hand, intermediation is a way of redistribution, at least in part, of products, work and profits. To intermediate, therefore, and still intermediate… this concept lies in the logic of the industrial mode of production.
What has been happening for some time now? The intermediation between producers and consumers is dealt with digital, with e-commerce, with the digitization and robotization of almost all supply chains, with the exception of the delivery of the goods on site. However, even this will soon be resolved with drones.
Are our Trumpian voters happy? No! On the contrary, everything does not reduce the costs of intermediation and is concentrated in a single or very few operators, for example, Amazon.
Even so, the joint technologies of digital could absorb and resolve all intermediation procedures, not eliminating their costs, but undoubtedly the profits and their monopolization.
To solve, and still solve… this concept lies in the potential of the digital mode of production. And if it is not resolved, as usual, the question is inevitably political.
