I’m Andres Acevedo, and this is The Market Exit.
In this essay, I explore a question I’ve been thinking about for years: Why does everything in our economy seem to demand endless growth?
To answer that, I look at the distinction between use-value and exchange-value, a concept at the heart of capitalism’s growth imperative. We visit a small café around the corner from where I live, that operates according to use-value, contrast it with Espresso House and its financialized expansion strategy, and then turn to my own YouTube channel, where I’ve faced the same pressures to scale, optimize, and monetize.
This video is an attempt to show how the capitalist mindset shapes not only corporations, but also our creative lives, our work, and our sense of what “enough” means. It’s also a small act of resistance: a case for making things because they matter, not because they maximize growth.
This essay was mainly inspired by Jason Hickel’s book Less is More.
***
📺 Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
00:52 Chapter 1 – The rise of capitalism
02:40 Chapter 2 – Use-value and the meaning of enough
03:59 Chapter 3 – Exchange-value and the capitalist mindset
06:54 Conclusion
09:22 Thank you
🙏 Support my work
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/themarketexit
Swish (Sweden): 123-333 34 65
🌐 Find me
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themarketexit
Personal: https://andresacevedo.com
Email: [email protected]