After Trump, business, not politics, will have to bring about change

At the Meaning conference in Brighton, entrepreneurs spoke of the need to create companies that benefit society and how crowdfunding could help achieve this

"Western democracy just awoke to its worst ever bad hair," Paul Mason told the Meaning conference in Brighton recently. The writer and broadcaster was, of course, referring to the election of Donald Trump as US president. Indeed, much of the event that brought together academics, business leaders, social activists and artists to discuss issues such as the future of work and ethical business was overshadowed by the spectre of rising populist politics.

Mason, who last year published a book entitled Post-Capitalism, said recent political events were a reaction to a failing economic system and the "decline of neo-liberalism". In particular, he said the IT revolution had "changed the game" for economics, reduced the cost of goods and services to close to zero, wiped out millions of well-paid jobs and replaced them with low-wage roles. "If you thought your kids were going to get high value jobs, you're wrong. We have graduates serving coffee. Remember when a car wash meant a machine? Now it's five guys with rags as they can undercut the cost of a machine," said Mason.