For What It’s Worth

Is it still possible to break with an economic system that is deeply rooted in all facets of life? Despite protests and warnings, this capitalist system of ‘desired’ competition is leading to monopolies, growing inequality, and depletion of both people and the planet.

According to French economist Thomas Piketty, we are heading towards a society that is strikingly similar to society prior to the industrial revolution. A society lacking a middle class, in which the majority of capital is owned by a small elite’; where education and labour no longer guarantee climbing on the social ladder. The first signs of this can already be noticed and felt; the growing precarity of labour, the overheated housing market, and the fact that a diploma no longer offers job or income security.

For what it’s worth centers around works of art that critically and poetically reflect on this development. While some works of art expose painful realities, others show counter-actions to change or undermine the system. Is there a possibility to get rid of this “culture of capital”? Or does the end of the world make more sense than the end of capitalism?