!is is a super confusing notion for capitalism, because That’s $2 trillion released from the labor market capitalism doesn’t have a reason as for why someone over to the non-labor market—thus those tasks would want to complete unpaid labor. More complex is becoming the same type of shadow work that Smith the fact that these unpaid, unmeasured labor pools can eat away at the revenue streams from the traditional, didn’t account for his own mother completing— paid labor pools. thanks to computer networks. Things people do for free. The work that people are willing to do for free is capable of eating entire industries. Research done by the authors of The Second Machine Age (the source of the above perspective Here’s an example of what I mean—think about on unpaid labor markets) estimates that “a correct the movie that a couple doesn’t go see in the accounting for computer-related intangible assets theater because they spent their Saturday evening would add over $2 trillion to the official estimates watching funny YouTubes, instead. Let’s say many of the capital assets in the United States economy.” of those YouTubes were made by people who were All those YouTubes providing entertainment in the never paid to post them—they merely captured place of movies, Wikis usurping encyclopedias, funny, interesting stuff that happened for the sake craigslist ads circumnavigating the newspaper ads. of sharing it with the world. 82