Fully Automated Luxury Communism by Aaron Bastani Summary

Fully Automated Luxury Communism is a political manifesto by Aaron Bastani that envisions a post-scarcity, post-capitalist society powered by technological advances. The book argues that automation, artificial intelligence, renewable energy, and synthetic biology can eliminate work and scarcity, creating a future of abundance where everyone enjoys luxuries previously reserved for the wealthy. Bastani positions FALC as a radical reorganization of society based on egalitarian principles and technological progress.

Aaron Bastani is a political commentator, co-founder of the left-wing media organization Novara Media, and holds a doctorate in political communications from the University of London. He wrote Fully Automated Luxury Communism as an intervention in left-wing political debate, transforming what began as an internet meme into a serious political manifesto. Bastani aims to reframe socialist politics for the 21st century by offering a vision of hope rather than anxiety about the future.

Fully Automated Luxury Communism is ideal for readers interested in leftist politics, technological utopianism, and post-capitalist futures. The book appeals to those seeking alternatives to neoliberal austerity and traditional "scarcity ecology" narratives. Progressive activists, technology enthusiasts, and anyone curious about how automation and AI might reshape society will find Bastani's accessible manifesto engaging, though critics note it may disappoint those seeking concrete strategies for political transformation.

Fully Automated Luxury Communism is worth reading as an accessible introduction to post-capitalist thinking and technological optimism, written in a clear, brisk style suitable for general audiences. The book excels at diagnosing contemporary crises and articulating an inspiring vision of abundance. However, readers should note that critics highlight significant weaknesses: vague political strategy for achieving FALC, insufficient engagement with ecological constraints, and Promethean assumptions about technology's ability to solve climate breakdown.

Fully Automated Luxury Communism argues that five contradictions—climate change, resource scarcity, aging populations, expanding poverty, and automation—will inevitably end capitalism within twenty years. Bastani proposes that technological innovations including solar power, asteroid mining, AI, and gene editing can create abundance and eliminate human labor. The book divides human history into three periods, suggesting we're entering an information technology era incompatible with capitalism's scarcity logic, enabling transition to a society where "luxury will pervade everything".

FALC stands for Fully Automated Luxury Communism, a concept that originated as an internet meme before Aaron Bastani developed it into a serious political framework. FALC represents a post-work, post-scarcity future where automation eliminates labor, abundance replaces scarcity, and luxury becomes universally accessible rather than hoarded by elites. Bastani insists "Communism is luxurious—or it isn't communism," emphasizing that pleasure and abundance are central to this vision, positioning FALC as Marx's original communist endpoint rather than Soviet-style state socialism.

Fully Automated Luxury Communism proposes achieving post-scarcity through specific technological pathways: solar power for energy abundance, asteroid mining for material resources ending environmental devastation, and innovations in AI, gene editing, and food technology for improved living standards. Bastani argues these technologies create "extreme supply of information" and innovation that enable transition from necessity to freedom. However, critics note the book's final section explaining how to bring about FALC is disappointingly vague, essentially proposing Corbynism without concrete mobilization strategies.

Fully Automated Luxury Communism faces criticism for its ecological shortcomings, particularly its inability to address how "fossil capitalism shapes our relationship to nature" in the climate crisis era. Critics argue Bastani's Promethean tech-optimism seems "out of place" as humanity "blasts through every conceivable ecological barrier". The book's weakest section is its political strategy, which fails to explain how ordinary people participate in achieving FALC beyond simply fighting for it. Additionally, reviewers note the book prioritizes technological solutions over interrogating capitalism's fundamental resource contradictions.

Fully Automated Luxury Communism sits alongside other Verso-published works on technological post-capitalism, including "Inventing the Future" by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams, "Four Futures" by Peter Frase, and "Molecular Red" by McKenzie Wark. However, Bastani's book distinguishes itself as the first to "boldly stamp FALC unambiguously on its cover" as a punchy manifesto. While these books share technological optimism about post-work futures, Fully Automated Luxury Communism is more accessible and explicitly embraces the communist label that others avoid.

The fully automated luxury communism meme first appeared around 2011 during Occupy Wall Street on a Google Doc that was passed around before being deleted. The concept spread rapidly across millennial-left internet spaces, spawning variations like "Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism" with over 83,000 Facebook likes. These memes blend disgust for capitalism with semi-ironic gestures toward wild futures, expressing genuine desire for a different world. Aaron Bastani's book represents the first serious attempt to transform this internet joke into substantive political theory.

Fully Automated Luxury Communism remains relevant in 2025 because the technological and social contradictions Bastani identified continue intensifying: automation displacing workers, climate breakdown accelerating, and inequality widening. The book's central question—whether technological transformation benefits everyone or only elites—grows more urgent as AI advances. However, Bastani's 2019 prediction that capitalism would end within twenty years faces scrutiny as we approach his timeline, making his vision simultaneously more prescient about technological change and potentially overoptimistic about political transformation speed.

Aaron Bastani argues in Fully Automated Luxury Communism that automation threatens to make human work obsolete, creating opportunity rather than crisis. Unlike traditional full-employment economies, Bastani envisions automation as "the path to a world of liberty, luxury and happiness" where "labour and leisure blend into one another". Drawing on Marx, Keynes, and Peter Drucker, he suggests technology can finally reduce human toil, creating a classless society where "work is eliminated" and "waged work becomes as much a relic of history as the feudal peasant".