| The term "end stage capitalism" (or the more palatable "late capitalism") I've heard a lot recently and things like this really make me wonder. The voracious and insatiable appetite for profit has led to some really disgusting practices for example: - Goldman Sachs driving up food prices, which quite literally kills people, for profit [1] - Hedge funds buying up trailer parks and jacking up the rates [2] - Medical price gouging (eg epipens, insulin) [3]; - Abbott shutting down a baby formula plant that was poisoning infants to essentially end-run a possible investigation [4] where ultimately the government begged (paid?) them to reopen it; and - Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a massive boon to the US military-industrial complex, a sector that might otherwise have found hard times thanks to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ending. If you look at these you see regulatory failure at pretty much every level thanks to the revolving door and resulting regulatory capture by these industries. Compare this to China, who executed two people found responsible for a tainted milk scandal [5]. It's hard not to see just how much rent-seeking and monopoly-creating goes on in the modern economy. When is it enough? [1]: https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/04/27/how-goldman-sachs-creat... [2]: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/15/what-happens-w... [3]: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/12/31/7926175... [4]: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/... [5]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/24/china-executes... |
The problem with this language is it implies inevitability and a near-term conclusion. Neither is a given.
You've correctly identified regulatory failure (specifically, our inattention to competition) at the root of these problems. Fighting that takes effort. When I hear the terms late-stage or end-stage capitalism, I hear nouveau nihilism. The situation is far from unfixable. And the present state can persist and fester for generations more.
An analogy might be found in a deteriorating factory. Management complains the factory is in its final stages. The foreman, meanwhile, sits bewildered next to a list of neglected maintenance. This wasn’t inevitable. It still isn’t inevitable. We’re just choosing not to fix it.