How nation-states are adopting Big Tech's 'enshittification' playbook to lock in citizens and extract global wealth.
Author Cory Doctorow coined 'enshittification' to describe how digital platforms die. First, they are good to users. Then, they abuse users to favor business partners. Finally, they squeeze everyone to claw back all the value for themselves.
This extractive cycle is no longer just digital. Modern nation-states are now applying this exact bait-and-switch to the global economy, abandoning cooperative growth in favor of aggressive, rent-seeking economic statecraft.
As Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned, the world is experiencing a 'rupture, not a transition.' Superpowers are actively monetizing their dominance, turning global platforms like reserve currencies and satellite networks into extractive tools.
This geoeconomic fragmentation isn't free. It costs the global economy between $213 billion and $307 billion every year, acting as a massive tax on international trade, innovation, and cooperation.
Global powers are leveraging centralized physical and digital hubs—from financial clearinghouses to fiber-optic cables—as geopolitical chokepoints. What once connected the world is now used to coerce it.
Unilateral tariffs and trade barriers have choked global markets. The OECD subsequently slashed growth forecasts as policy uncertainty forced companies to draw down stockpiles instead of investing in future productivity.
This decay mirrors the late-stage protectionism of ancient mercantile empires. When cooperative expansion stalled, historical empires turned inward, aggressively taxing trade routes and ultimately paralyzing their own economies.
The pain trickles all the way down to everyday citizens. Financial fragmentation acts as a wage depressant across all skill levels, while the erosion of labor protections turns jobs into precarious, stagnant traps.
In a worst-case scenario of full East-West economic decoupling, global output could plunge by 6.4%. Emerging markets outside the major power blocs stand to lose the most, with potential output drops of up to 10.7%.
Some nations are finding ways to resist. By building strategic autonomy and maintaining multi-aligned trade relationships, resilient economies like India are projected to sustain solid growth above 6% despite global headwinds.
To survive this high-friction era, businesses must diversify supply chains across neutral hubs, reduce reliance on single-currency networks, and invest heavily in domestic technological self-reliance.
Unlike a dying social media app, sovereign superpowers cannot be easily abandoned. They hold massive military and financial monopolies, meaning this extractive phase could persist for decades if left unchallenged.
The challenge of our time is to rebuild open, resilient networks before the global commons are entirely enclosed. Only by fostering decentralized, cooperative systems can we break the cycle of macroeconomic decay.
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