i agree that the information sector warrants an updated view on political economy, but i dislike the hard distinction between capitalists and “vectorialist.” ultimately the “vectorialist” would be the owners of a firm that produces, aggregates, or disseminates information; and all of this requires the input of labor. distinguishing between “laborer” and “hacker” is strange bc (assuming “hackers” are those working for vectorialists) both sell their labor. the landlord/capitalist distinction exists bc, although they both extract surplus value, the capitalist extracts it by selling the product of labor (textiles, grocery service, NYT article) while the landlord extracts it directly from the laborer (or capitalist) in the form of rent.
i agree that the information sector warrants an updated view on political economy, but i dislike the hard distinction between capitalists and “vectorialist.” ultimately the “vectorialist” would be the owners of a firm that produces, aggregates, or disseminates information; and all of this requires the input of labor. distinguishing between “laborer” and “hacker” is strange bc (assuming “hackers” are those working for vectorialists) both sell their labor. the landlord/capitalist distinction exists bc, although they both extract surplus value, the capitalist extracts it by selling the product of labor (textiles, grocery service, NYT article) while the landlord extracts it directly from the laborer (or capitalist) in the form of rent.