Dmitry N. Ivanov, Ph.D. (History), Associate Professor of the Department of International Entrepreneurship, Saint Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation (SUAI), e-mail: Ivanov_D_N@inbox.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8915-6014
The article examines the validity of the idea of the ‘end of history’ formulated by F. Fukuyama through the prism of an integral part of liberal democracy — unlimited consumption. The consumption factor as one of the circumstances that contributed to the triumph of the ideas of the ‘Western world’ over the competing communist and fascist models of society, F. Fukuyama already designated in his article “The End of history?” in 1989. At that time, the discussion about the exhaustion of natural resources had not yet become widespread, and consumer society had not acquired a modern scale (when it became customary even to change cars every 3–5 years). Today, the problem of lack of resources (from banal drinking water to rare earth metals) is considered as a key factor in the potential need for forced restriction of consumption. And the forced restriction of consumption is practically incompatible with the ideas of democracy. The article concludes that the development of information technologies and their monetization within the digital world (including metaverses) will allow at least for some time to switch the growing consumption from the market of ‘real’ goods to the market of ‘virtual’ goods and services. As the costs of ‘developing’ their character (and in some cases, a full-fledged avatar) in the game or meta-universe increase, people will spend more and more money (both real and their various analogues in the digital world — from game tokens to cryptocurrencies) in the virtual world, reducing the consumption of physical goods in the real world. It is concluded that further development of this trend may reduce for some time the severity of the crisis of lack of resources to meet the ever-increasing consumption needs of the population of both developed and developing countries.
Keywords: F. Fukuyama, consumer economics, tokenomics, games, cryptocurrency
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