Capital Versus Corposense

Capital Versus Corposense: Why the Future of Prosperity Is No Longer Capitalist

BY: OMOLAJA MAKINEE

Introduction: Two Economic Logics, One Civilisational Choice

Every economic system rests on a hidden logic that determines who may produce, how value is created, and who may prosper. Capitalism rests on capital dependency. Corporatism—properly understood, not in its distorted State-aligned caricature—rests on corposense dependency.

Corporatism remains one of the most misunderstood concepts in political theory. What is commonly presented as “corporatism” in academic and political discourse is in fact a State-authoritarian derivative introduced through the glaze of capitalism. These historical models framed corporatism as a system of top-down political control—where governments exercised authoritative power to regulate economic activity, formalise social hierarchies, orchestrate class collaboration, and ultimately preserve class society rather than dissolve it. Such interpretations conflate corporatism with State-managed capitalism and obscure its distinct economic logic.

In its true form, corporatism is not a doctrine of political domination over labour and capital, but an economic system rooted in the autonomous administration of productive capacity. This autonomous administration is conducted by joint bodies of labour and—what this manifesto defines as corposense—independent of enforced class structures or capital ownership.

Capitalism asks a single question: Who controls capital? Corporatism asks a more fundamental one: Who controls productive sense?

Here I argues that modern economic evolution—particularly e-commerce, digital labour, freelancing, and decentralised production—reveals a decisive civilisational shift: capital is no longer the primary engine of productivity; corposense is.

1. What Capitalism Actually Depends On

Capitalism is structurally dependent on capital accumulation. Its productive logic is simple and rigid:

  • Money secures land.
  • Money purchases raw materials.
  • Money pays labour.
  • Money absorbs risk.
  • Money scales production.

In this system, production cannot begin without prior capital. Economic rationality is therefore defined by:

  • Profit maximisation.
  • Capital growth.
  • Competitive exclusion.
  • Ownership concentration.

Markets decide allocation, but only among those already possessing capital. Labour, no matter how skilled, remains dependent on capital owners for access to production. This is why capitalism produces a recognisable pattern:

  • Workers must travel to work,
  • Labour must be sold by time,
  • Productivity is controlled externally,
  • Economic participation requires permission from capital.

The factory, the office, the supermarket, the warehouse—these are not neutral spaces. They are architectures of capital dependency.

2. Corposense: The Forgotten Driver of Production

Corposense refers to the total productive capacity inherent in the individual:

  • Skill,
  • Knowledge,
  • Creativity,
  • Cognitive ability,
  • Social intelligence,
  • Technical competence,
  • Emotional labour,
  • Cultural fluency.

Where capitalism treats labour as an input purchased by capital, corporatism treats corposense as the primary productive asset. In a corposense-driven system:

  • Production begins with ability, not money.
  • Access to production is determined by competence, not ownership of capital.
  • Economic participation does not require land, factories, or machines—only connection.

3. Capital Powers Production; Corposense Produces Value

It is important to distinguish between powering production and producing value.

Capital powers production by:

  • Financing infrastructure,
  • Purchasing equipment,
  • Coordinating labour,
  • Absorbing risk.

But capital itself produces nothing.

Corposense produces value by:

  • Designing,
  • Writing,
  • Coding,
  • Teaching,
  • Consulting,
  • Creating,
  • Problem-solving,
  • Innovating.

In reality, capital only amplifies corposense—it does not replace it. This distinction explains a critical modern phenomenon:

Capital is becoming increasingly unnecessary for entry into production.

4. Ethno-Corporatism and the Completion of Corporatist Theory

The theory of ethno-corporatism reveals corporatism in its truest and most complete form. It clarifies a structural distinction that classical corporatist theory failed to resolve: in a genuinely corporatist economy, the State is the producer of capital, while the citizenry are the producers of value through their corposense.

Capital, in this framework, is not a private accumulation instrument nor a speculative commodity; it is a public productive utility generated, administered, and circulated by the State to power infrastructure, platforms, and shared economic systems. Corposense—intellectual capacity, skill, creativity, and productive autonomy—is exercised by citizens within these systems to generate real value, innovation, and social prosperity. The two are not antagonistic but complementary: capital powers production; corposense produces value.

What distinguishes ethnocorporatism from classical corporatist theory is that it advances beyond this dual structure into a non-monetary economic horizon. While modern corporatism remains constrained beneath capitalist monetary logic—forced to operate through profit, pricing, and financial mediation—ethno-corporatism emancipates corporatist production from money itself. In doing so, it anticipates the full technological and AI-enabled capacity of corporatism, where States function as master-franchisees of productive capital, and citizens deploy their corposense freely across public economic platforms without monetary barriers.

Ethno-corporatism therefore does not reject corporatism; it completes it, transforming an emergent economic logic into a fully matured system aligned with technological civilisation rather than capitalist inheritance.

5. The Digital Economy as Proof of Corporatist Logic

E-commerce, freelancing, and online income generation are not anomalies. They are structural evidence that capitalism is being quietly bypassed. Consider what is less required. Less:

  • factory,
  • shopfront,
  • warehouse,
  • large capital outlay,
  • physical proximity to employer.

Instead, what is required is; More:

  • Skill,
  • Connectivity,
  • Matching platforms,
  • Trust mechanisms,
  • Reputation.

A freelancer does not ask for capital; they ask for clients. An online educator does not seek land; they seek attention. A digital designer does not need a factory; they need demand alignment.

This is corporatism in practice: productive sense administered directly by individuals.

6. Corposense Administration Versus Capital Allocation

Capitalism depends on allocation:

  • Capital flows to where returns are highest.
  • People adjust their lives to follow capital.
  • Labour migrates, relocates, uproots.

Corporatism depends on administration:

  • Individuals administer their own productive capacity.
  • Resources are accessed as needed, not owned in advance.
  • Production aligns with life, not life with production.

This difference is profound. Capital allocation is abstract and indifferent. Corposense administration is personal, interpersonal, and intentional.

7. Why Capitalist Rationality Is Becoming Obsolete

Capitalist rationality defines success as:

  • Accumulation,
  • Growth,
  • Market dominance,
  • Continuous expansion.

But this logic collapses under modern conditions:

  • Automation reduces labour demand,
  • Digital tools reduce capital requirements,
  • Platforms replace physical infrastructure,
  • Skills age faster than factories.

Profit-driven accumulation increasingly produces:

  • Job insecurity,
  • Overwork,
  • Resource waste,
  • Psychological exhaustion.

Corposense-driven productivity, by contrast, prioritises:

  • Functional contribution,
  • Adaptive intelligence,
  • Distributed prosperity,
  • Human sustainability.

8. Capitalism Requires Movement; Corporatism Requires Connection

Under capitalism. More:

  • Workers commute,
  • Goods travel,
  • Supply chains stretch,
  • Time is fragmented.

Under corporatism. More:

  • Work travels to the worker,
  • Goods are coordinated digitally,
  • Value is transmitted, not transported.

This is why capitalism builds more roads and offices, while corporatism builds more digital networks.

9. The African Context: Capital Scarcity Versus Corposense Abundance

Africa’s crisis has never been a lack of ability—it has been a lack of capital access. Capitalism therefore forces Africans into dependency:

  • Loans,
  • Foreign investment,
  • Aid,
  • Resource extraction.

Corporatism reverses the equation:

  • Africans already possess corposense in abundance,
  • What is missing is coordination and recognition,
  • Digital platforms collapse capital barriers.

The future of African prosperity does not lie in acquiring capital—it lies in liberating corposense.

Conclusion: From Owning Capital to Owning Capacity

The civilisational choice before humanity is no longer ideological—it is structural. Capitalism asks people to serve capital. Corporatism allows people to deploy themselves. Capitalism burdens society with perpetual accumulation. Corporatism frees society through productive sense.

The economy of the future will not be owned by those who possess the most money, but by those who administer ability most intelligently. Capital built the industrial age. Corposense is building the post-capitalist world.

The transition is already underway.

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Ethnocorporatism