[Eddy_Viscosity2]

Late stage capitalism refers to the stage where the field has become dominated by a relatively few big players and the focus shifts from providing value (which was required in the early stages with lots of smaller competing players) to extracting value. That's where we are now in many of the big economic areas - a few big players squeezing everyone by providing less and charging more for it because they can. It's the enshitification stage. It sucks for everyone but the owners of those companies.

[4RealFreedom]

That could be viewed as a piece of "late stage capitalism" but that's only one part, right? The problem with the term is it's a catch-all for any perceived problem with capitalism. Maybe that issue is just a capitalism speed bump. As I said, we won't know we're in late stage until after the collapse.

[Eddy_Viscosity2]

It's 'late' as in a stage that comes after the earlier stages. A collapse isn't guaranteed nor inevitable. There could just be a continual freezing out of competition until all that's left are entrenched classes of 'capital owners / rent extractors' living large, and everyone else struggling to get by. With modern computer-aided surveillance and monitoring and compliance capabilities, the capital owners could maintain the system pretty effectively. No collapse, just a a slow slide into well managed misery.

[4RealFreedom]

There will always be "haves" and "have nots". That's been the case since forever. Standard Oil ruled the world. AT&T did, too. I agree that monopolies are bad. We should pressure our government to break them up. Will that help with people trying to find jobs in an inferior job market? That's where this conversation started. We need a strong job market. Competition can help that. We will always have bad job markets, though. It's part of the cycle. Nothing lasts forever.