Doctor Who, Kerblam!, and the Problem of Capitalism
In the 2018 Doctor Who episode “Kerblam!”, something is killing workers off at a far future Amazon analogue. Is the system actually the problem? In this episode, Doctor Who is used as a lens to understand the history of capitalism, technological unemployment, and what it means for our automated future.
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Bibliography and Further Reading
Who Were the Luddites from History.com: https://www.history.com/news/who-were...
Article in the Guardian about Doctor Who’s Issues with ‘Wokeness’: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-ra...
Article on CNBC about McKinsey & Company’s report about automation: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/29/one-t...
Article on Quartz abou technological unemployment including description of the White House report: https://qz.com/895681/silicon-valley-...
The White House report on Automation written in the Obama era: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/...
Article about the Origins of the 40-hour Workweek: https://www.clockspot.com/blog/workin...
Article in the Guardian about Keynes and the workweek of the future: https://www.theguardian.com/business/...
Article in Vox about how the wealthy have taken all the productivity growth for themselves: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politi...
Forbes article about Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfrie...
Huffpost article about American being unable to afford an emergency: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/most-a...
Forbes article about people using GoFundMe to cover healthcare costs: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolynm...
Information about Universal Basic Assets, an alternative to Universal Basic Income that gives people greater power over the means of production in addition to money: http://www.iftf.org/uba/
Wikipedia's article on Neoliberalism (not to be confused with American Liberalism or Classical Liberalism which are three different things): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolibe...
Thatcher and the phrase "there's simply no alternative” on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_i...