If We're In Late Stage Capitalism, Does That Mean the End of Capitalism Is Near?

This blog post is a follow-up to my previous one, Capitalism Sucks.

Over the past 25 years, capitalism has failed. And individualism has replaced collectivism and solidarity. Democratic capitalism today is an oxymoron.

What is late capitalism?

At this point, the phrase is everywhere. Late capitalism, in its current usage, is meant to describe the stage of capitalism where things get so bad that a revolution happens.

The term was popularized by a Marxist theorist and activist named Ernest Mandel in the mid-twentieth century. He warned about automation, globalization, and wage stagnation, and feared that they would devastate society by making workers miserable.

I think it sounds almost ominous because a “late” period implies that we are at the end of something.

Late capitalism is a stage where Walmart makes billions of dollars on profits, while its full time employees need public assistance to keep themselves and their families fed.

It’s a stage where Amazon makes hundreds of billions, and pays no taxes.

It’s a stage where Apple has about $20 billion just in cash.

These are all examples of late capitalism. To find more, just scroll through social media. You’ll find hundreds of examples of people who need to use GoFundMe just to pay for insulin to stay alive. The list of ways we are completely miserable goes on and on.

The cynical #latecapitalism meme going around social media calls out the inequities and absurdities of the modern economy. Google search interest in the phrase has more than doubled in the past year. In this episode of Unpresidented, Atlantic contributing editor Annie Lowrey explains where the phrase comes from, how it got so popular, and the deeper meaning of its current usage.

“We are the 99%!”

In 2011, I didn’t get out much. Like at all. Since my first son was born that winter, I spent pretty much all of 2011 at home, nursing, taking care of a new baby, and watching A LOT of TV. I followed the Occupy Wall Street movement closely because I was so struck by it. There were several protests and occupations happening in my city (Baltimore) which I also followed.

The Occupy movement was an international, leaderless, socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of "real democracy" around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and economic justice and new forms of democracy. When the resisters flooded lower Manhattan in September 2011, it was an action meant to inspire an American version of the Arab Spring demonstrations that toppled rulers throughout the Middle East and North Africa earlier that year. They were also a continuum of the Indignados of Spain, who protested corporate-driven economic policies that cut funding for schools, jobs and healthcare. Activists from all over the world met in NYC for months to plan for the Wall Street demonstrations. Instead of issuing a single demand, they opted instead to allow many voices and concerns. (Greg Jobin-Leeds, When We Fight, We Win)

The movement had many different scopes, since local groups often had different focuses, but its prime concerns included class struggle and how large corporations and the global financial system control the world in a way that disproportionately benefited a minority, undermined democracy and caused instability. It formed part of what has been called the "global justice movement". (Wikipedia)

It was criticized heavily for having no center and for not having clear demands. But how can you have a specific demand when what they’re fighting against is so ubiquitous and systemic?

After fifty-nine days, police violently evicted the protesters and trashed the encampments. This ended the occupation. But the movement lives on. These Occupy resisters helped me understand that there were others out there who dreamt of a world without dictators and corporate raiders. “We are the 99%” stuck with me and rallying against the 1% went on to become part of our shared culture. For the first time in my life, people began seriously talking about what alternatives to capitalism might look like.

Photo c/o The Daily Beast.

Occupy isn’t the only movement challenging capitalism.

Capitalism is at the root of so much injustice. Challenging capitalism is where the organizing of anti-imperialism, environmental justice, gun reform, immigrant rights, restaurant workers, anti-eviction, teachers unions, prison justice, and so many other movements all intersect.

How do we restructure the economy so that it benefits the 99% instead of the 1%?

There are tons of books, articles and debates out there where some solution or alternative to capitalism is promoted. Some want to reform it. Some want to abolish it altogether. Some want a combination of the two, known as a social democracy. Some have suggested a system called a pluralist commonwealth.

I actually don’t think abolishing capitalism completely is realistic. Some aspects of capitalism aren’t bad, as long as they are small and locally rooted. But when I say small, I mean it. SMALL. Small as in serving a single community or neighborhood and focused on a single line of products or services.

Scale is paramount. We don’t want Starbucks dominating the coffeehouses of the world. We don’t want bookstores buying other bookstores in other towns—and we don’t want Amazon.com shutting down our local bookstores or turning reading solely into an Internet experience. We don’t want banks buying other banks, or banks buying corporations, or banks or corporations buying governments. We don’t want military contractors like General Electric buying up mass media. We don’t want Rupert Murdoch owning hundreds of newspapers and broadcast outlets. We don’t want some rich guy coming into our neighborhood and buying up all the property and local businesses for himself. We don’t want a few companies like Google or Disney or Facebook dominating global communications in every form, as seems to be rapidly developing. (There Are Good Alternatives to US Capitalism, But No Way to Get There. Counterpoint Press)

If our money and banking system shifted power from Wall Street to Main Street, that is one way of benefitting the 99%. While Wall Street only serves to feed greed and speculation, Main Street actually meets the needs of the people.

Another way is to shift taxes so that the wealthiest pay the most.

I would also love to see the Green New Deal become a reality.

Cancel student loan debt.

Universal healthcare for all.

Education should be free.

Of course none of this would be possible without a ton of regulation.

Many other countries— like Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Iceland, and Japan—already enjoy versions of a mixed economy, a collaboration of capitalist and socialist policies that most of these countries call “social democracy.” Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen here in the US. Here, any kind of government intervention or pushback quickly gets labeled “socialist” or “communist.” Not that those are bad things to be but Americans have been conditioned to think of them negatively. It makes transformation very difficult. (There Are Good Alternatives to US Capitalism, But No Way to Get There, Counterpoint Press)

The change we need will not come from the top. As we’ve seen in countless ways, our current political system limits the potential for traditional progressive strategies. A new vision—one that encompasses fresh political strategies as well as new political-economic content—must be built from the bottom up. The overarching goal must be to develop a set of ideas that challenge the dominant ideologies and move the country in a fundamentally new direction. (Socialism in America is Closer Than You Think, The Nation)

Unless there is a colossal shift in our political reality, or a massive uprising many times larger than the Occupy movement, any beneficial changes will take too long and be too incremental. And since the government and media are owned and operated by the billionaire class, don’t expect any help from them either. They don’t represent us.

Collective action from the masses needs to be the goal.

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