Episode 2
The Third Revolution
From extraction to regeneration — the case for a fundamental economic shift, drawing on MMT and Post-Keynesian economics.
In this episode, we dive deep into the core thesis of the Delano Institute's flagship paper: The Third Revolution. The first revolution — industrial — mechanized labor and transformed agrarian societies. The second — digital — connected the world through information technology. The third revolution must regenerate the systems that the first two depleted.
The Extraction Problem
Both previous revolutions operated on extractive logic: take resources (natural, human, social) and convert them into economic output. This logic worked when resources seemed infinite and externalities could be ignored. Neither condition holds today. Climate change, biodiversity loss, social fragmentation, and wealth inequality are all symptoms of an extractive model hitting its limits.
The MMT Foundation
A key argument in the Third Revolution framework draws on Modern Monetary Theory. If sovereign currency issuers face no financial constraints — only real resource constraints — then the question "how will we pay for it?" is fundamentally misguided. The real questions are: Do we have the workers? Do we have the materials? Do we have the technology? The answer to all three is yes.
"The digits are infinite. The real resources are finite. Stop conflating them."