Tapping into the intuitions of several early twentieth-century biologists, and in particular Joseph Tainter's analysis of the collapse of complex societies, Bonaiuti puts forward the theory that advanced capitalist societies have been entering, and ever more so since the 1970s, a phase of "diminishing marginal returns."
Nearly ten years on from the Great Recession, notwithstanding that the panic has dispelled and the financial markets have started to recover, there is still no clear evidence of a return to growth in the West.
As illustrated in his book, this is not linked to normal oscillations in the economic cycle, but rather is systemic in nature, and in particular is connected to the growing complexity of social organizations (military forces, bureaucracies, health services, education, research).
Bonaiuti says the West's failure to return to growth is also linked to the fall in yields of its new tertiary economy as well as to increasing costs of energy and raw materials.
This would go to explain the impotence and ineffectiveness of remedial measures that have been adopted until today, all born of traditional forms of economic policy.