Probably worth exploring and we may as well keep it in this thread for now...
Is it an economic movement? Sure, but it has also been around for quite a while - at least 100 years and, I'm certain, probably a lot longer. I don't have the exact references at hand, but I believe that the extent was estimated at about 4-5 billion Euros in the EU in 2004, and that was only the part dealing with fraudulent claims for government assistance that was being funneled into the network.
It is definitely part of existing structures of capital flow, but those are, currently, closer to a form of capitalist feudalism that either free market or central planning (BTW, the same was true of Henry Ford's operation).
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