Existentialism as Next Capitalism
— Toward an Economy Where "Being" Is Value

* This essay is an academic exploration and does not advocate for any specific political position or economic policy.

1. The Dead End of Capitalism — The Limits of "Having"

Capitalism is the most successful economic system in human history. It has reduced famine, extended lifespans, and raised material prosperity to unprecedented levels.

Yet in the 21st century, its limits have become visible.

Climate change, widening inequality, rising mental illness, epidemic loneliness — these are not "side effects" of capitalism but structural consequences of its foundational principle: placing value on having.

"The more you possess, the more hollow your existence becomes. For possession is an act of placing value outside yourself, not an act of filling your inner life."

— Erich Fromm, To Have or To Be? (1976)

Fromm drew the contrast between the "Having mode" and the "Being mode" half a century ago. But at the time, his insight remained an ethical proposition. There was no visible method for implementing it as an economic principle.

Now, circumstances are changing.

The Growth Paradox

Economic growth measured by GDP and people's well-being cease to correlate beyond a certain threshold. Known as the "Easterlin Paradox" since its report in 1974, this finding has been repeatedly confirmed.

Once per-capita GDP exceeds approximately $20,000, income increases barely improve subjective well-being. All advanced economies have surpassed this threshold. Current economic growth in developed nations continues to increase "having" but contributes little to the enrichment of "being."

The Saturation of Ownership

The average household in developed nations is estimated to contain 300,000 items. The rise of minimalism, the social phenomenon of decluttering, the shift toward subscription economies — all are responses to the saturation of ownership.

People intuitively sense that beyond "having," the question of "being" awaits.

2. Rereading Existentialism — Existence as Economic Principle

Existentialism is known as a 20th-century philosophical movement. Sartre, Camus, Heidegger, Kierkegaard — their thought reexamined the question "What is a human being?" from its very foundations.

What this essay proposes is rereading existentialism not as "philosophy" but as "economic principle."

"Existence Precedes Essence" — An Economic Reading

Sartre's famous thesis "existence precedes essence" (l'existence précède l'essence), translated economically, becomes:

Capitalism rests on the opposite premise. In the capitalist view of humanity, a person's worth is measured by what they "possess" — credentials, assets, status, productivity. Those who possess nothing hold no value. This is capitalism's implicit assumption.

Existentialism overturns this premise. "Being" comes first. Attributes follow. This inversion is not merely philosophically correct — it can also function as a design principle for economies.

"Projection" — Life as Project

Heidegger's "projection" (Entwurf) and Sartre's "project" (projet) indicate that human beings are entities who cast themselves forward into the future.

Read economically, a human being is neither "consumer" nor "worker" but "project." The subject who creates their own existence toward the future — that is the essential economic activity of human beings.

Capitalism positions humans as "subjects who consume." An existentialist economy positions humans as "subjects who create existence." This difference transforms the design of economic systems at their foundation.

"Anxiety" — Existential and Economic

The "anxiety" (Angst) Kierkegaard described is the fundamental emotion of human beings standing before freedom. Anxiety arises precisely because nothing is predetermined about what one will choose.

Modern economic anxieties — job instability, fears about retirement, dread of inequality — are the economic expression of this existential anxiety. Capitalism attempts to fill this anxiety through consumption. We buy insurance, accumulate assets, purchase status-signaling goods.

Yet consumption does not resolve existential anxiety. Because the root of anxiety is not "lacking possessions" but the existential pressure of "having to be someone."

3. The Contours of a "Being Economy" — From Ownership to Existence

What kind of economy emerges when existentialism serves as the economic principle?

Redefining Value

"Authenticity" as a Value Standard

Heidegger distinguished between "authenticity" (Eigentlichkeit) and "inauthenticity" (Uneigentlichkeit). Living absorbed in "the they" (das Man) is inauthentic; living by embracing one's own finitude is authentic.

Applied to economics, "authenticity" becomes a value standard.

Markets are already moving in this direction. Craft beer, farmers' markets, the revival of artisanal handwork — when people choose a "product with a story" over a mass-produced item, they are unconsciously paying a premium for authenticity.

But this remains within the frame of consumption. The true transformation occurs at the stage where "being authentic" itself carries economic value.

Reevaluating the Gift Economy

As Marcel Mauss described in The Gift, gift-giving was the economic foundation of pre-market societies. Giving is not an act of "having" but an act of "being" — offering one's very existence.

Intriguingly, gift-like structures are returning at the frontier of modern economies. Open-source software, Wikipedia, the volunteer economy — these appear to be "contributions without compensation," but they actually function as "expressions of existence." Through writing code, editing articles, and giving time, people perform a proof of existence: "This is who I am."

4. The Economics of Finitude — Death Transforms the Economy

At the heart of existentialism lies the "awareness of finitude." Heidegger's "Being-toward-death" (Sein zum Tode) reveals the paradox that human beings can only live authentically when they become aware of death.

Capitalism is an economy that functions by making us forget death. "More possessions, longer life, greater security" — this desire for perpetuity drives consumption and accumulation.

An existentialist economy, by contrast, places finitude as the premise of economics.

"Being Limited" Creates Value

Markets already know the value of finitude.

• Limited editions: Scarcity of quantity raises prices
• Seasonal ingredients: Temporal finitude deepens taste
• Live experiences: Unrepeatable moments increase experiential value
• Handcraft: The finitude of human time generates rarity

But these are merely the "commodification" of finitude. What an existentialist economy proposes is not the commodification but the "embrace" of finitude.

Awareness of Death and Economic Behavior

As Terror Management Theory (TMT) research shows, the salience of death dramatically alters consumer behavior. People who are made aware of death increase their consumption of branded goods — a capitalist processing of anxiety.

Yet other research shows that when "awareness of death" deepens into "embrace of finitude," people turn not to consumption but to "meaningful action." Giving, creating, deepening relationships — human beings who authentically embrace finitude pursue the enrichment of existence, not the accumulation of possessions.

Here lies the turning point of economic principles.

5. The Economy of "Being-With" — Existing Together with Others

Heidegger defined human beings as "Being-with" (Mitsein). Humans are fundamentally beings who exist together with others.

Capitalism treats individuals as atomistic agents. The consumer is an isolated bundle of preferences; the worker is an interchangeable production factor. This atomization structurally produces the modern epidemic of loneliness.

When Relationships Become Economy

In an existentialist economy, human beings are repositioned within relationships. Economic value is understood not as the possessions of isolated individuals but as something born between people.

This is not idealism. The transformation is already occurring throughout the economy:

• Sharing economy: From ownership to sharing (though current platform capitalism remains at the "commodification of sharing")
• Community economies: Local currencies, time banks, mutual aid cooperatives
• Relational populations: Neither permanent residents nor tourists, but people in relationship with a place
• Care economy: Economic valuation of acts that support others' existence

The Economics of "The Gaze"

In Being and Nothingness, Sartre developed his analysis of "the gaze" (le regard). The other's gaze objectifies me while simultaneously confirming my existence.

The social media economy is a distorted form of this "economy of the gaze." "Likes" serve as currency for existential acknowledgment; follower counts become quantitative indicators of existence. But by commodifying "the gaze," this system transforms relationships with others into something inauthentic.

An existentialist economy does not commodify "the gaze" but designs spaces where gazes are naturally exchanged. This may not look like economic activity, but it is in fact the foundation for the most essential economic act — the mutual acknowledgment of existence.

6. The Economics of Time — From "Duration" to "The Moment"

Capitalist time is linear and quantitative. Time is something to "spend," to "save," to "invest." Time is money — this equation encapsulates capitalism's view of time.

Existentialist time is qualitative. Kierkegaard's "moment" (Øieblikket), Heidegger's "moment of vision" (Augenblick) point not to the quantity of time but to its quality — staking one's entire existence on a single instant.

Beyond the Attention Economy

The modern "attention economy" slices time into seconds and trades those fragments as advertising value. Human consciousness has become a commodity; concentration has become a scarce resource.

An existentialist economy envisions not the "capture" of attention but spaces where attention naturally "turns." Flow states, immersion, deep dialogue — these are not the "consumption" of attention but its "fulfillment."

The Temporal Economy of "Leaving Behind"

Here, TokiStorage's philosophy connects.

"Leaving behind" is the act of a finite being reaching beyond finitude. It is not a denial of death but an act born from the awareness of death — precisely because we are finite, we seek to leave something behind.

A 1,000-year timescale is fundamentally different from capitalism's temporal horizons (quarterly earnings, annual reports, five-year plans). When one stands in this timescale, "what you have" loses its meaning, and only "what you brought into being" remains.

7. The Economy of Those Who Stand at Boundaries

Existentialism is, at its core, a philosophy of boundaries.

Camus's "Stranger" stands at the boundary between inside and outside society; Kierkegaard's "Single Individual" stands at the boundary between the crowd and the self; Sartre's "freedom" stands at the boundary between the given and the chosen.

The Boundarist movement focuses on precisely these boundaries. People standing at the boundary between inside and outside of institutions — those who have fallen through institutional cracks (Outside Boundarists) and those who have witnessed institutional limits from within (Inside Boundarists).

Economy Born from Boundaries

Capitalism treats boundaries as "barriers." Barriers to entry, tariff walls, information asymmetry — boundaries are something to be overcome or exploited.

An existentialist economy reconceives boundaries as "sites of emergence." Boundaries are where two worlds make contact, where new value is born.

Japanese Americans in Hawaii embody precisely this richness of boundaries. Japan and America, East and West, immigrant and settled, past and present — living across multiple boundaries is existentially richer than belonging to a single world.

"Resonance" as Economic Principle

What crosses boundaries is not force but resonance.

In Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World, Hartmut Rosa located the problem of modern society in "acceleration." Acceleration pursues "the expansion of our reach into the world" but does not necessarily deepen "our responsive relationship with the world (resonance)."

In an existentialist economy, "transactions" are not exchanges of compensation but resonances of existence. Gifts call forth reciprocity not because of obligation but because of resonance.

8. Pathways to Implementation — What Has Already Begun

An existentialist economy is not a fantasy. Its fragments are already being practiced around the world.

Bhutan's GNH (Gross National Happiness)

Since 1972, Bhutan has adopted GNH (Gross National Happiness) as a national indicator in place of GDP. Across nine domains — psychological well-being, health, education, cultural diversity, time use, community vitality, ecological diversity, good governance, and living standards — it measures the quality of "being."

Well-Being Economies

In 2019, New Zealand introduced its "Well-Being Budget," allocating budgets based on citizens' well-being rather than GDP. Scotland, Iceland, and Finland are adopting similar frameworks.

Doughnut Economics

Kate Raworth's "Doughnut Economics" defines a sustainable economic space between a "social foundation" and an "environmental ceiling." This implicitly establishes the minimum conditions for "being" (social foundation) and the upper limit of "having" (environmental ceiling).

Soul Carrier and the Gift Economy

The Soul Carrier practice is one concrete example of an existentialist economy. Delivering the ashes of Japanese Americans in Hawaii to their ancestral homeland — this act has no market-based compensation. Yet as a resonance of existence — the act of connecting the fact that someone "was" across lands and generations — it carries profound economic meaning.

It begins as gift, expands as resonance, and persists as relationship. This is an economic circuit fundamentally different from capitalism's "transaction, profit, accumulation."

9. Objections and Responses — Limits of an Existentialist Economy

Criticism of the existentialist economy concept is, of course, legitimate.

"The economy cannot exist without a material foundation"

Correct. An existentialist economy does not deny material foundations. Food, shelter, healthcare, education — the proposal is to shift the "purpose" of economy from ownership to existence after securing these material foundations. One need not invoke Maslow's hierarchy to know that existence cannot be discussed without a foundation of survival.

"Are you denying the efficiency of markets?"

No. Markets are an effective mechanism for resource allocation. The problem arises when markets function as the "sole" system of value evaluation, systematically undervaluing what markets cannot measure — the authenticity of existence, the depth of relationships, the quality of time. An existentialist economy does not "abolish" markets but "relativizes" them.

"This is mere idealism"

Every economic system was once idealism. Adam Smith's free market, Marx's communism, Keynes's modified capitalism — each was called "unrealistic" when first conceived. The question is not feasibility but the rightness of direction.

And elements of an existentialist economy are already scattered throughout reality. Connecting them within a single intellectual framework is the attempt of this essay.

Conclusion — An Economy That Begins with "Being"

Capitalism valued "having." And "having" delivered material prosperity to humanity. This cannot be denied.

But beyond "having," the question of "being" awaits.

Existentialism is the most thoroughgoing philosophical response to this question. And when that response is reread as an economic principle, the contours of the next economy become visible.

"What matters is not what happens to a human being, but what they do with what happens to them."

— Jean-Paul Sartre

What is happening to capitalism, everyone knows. The question is what we do about it.

From ownership to existence. From consumption to creation. From accumulation to giving. From competition to resonance.

This transformation will not happen overnight through institutional reform. It begins — gradually, but certainly — when each person reexamines the meaning of "being" and chooses their actions based on that inquiry.

Next capitalism arrives not as ideology. It has already quietly begun as the existential decision of each individual.