[ahmeneeroe-v2]

How is this unique to "late stage capitalism"? That same sentence can be used mad lib style for any human endevor.

>Perhaps more indicative of ________ where rent seekers try to extract more and more value and consolidate more and more power

Feudal Europe Roman patrician class British Raj Ming dynasty bureaucrats Latin American drug cartels etc

Point being that the "late stage capitalism" people lack rigor and don't add to the conversation

[legitster]

> "late stage capitalism"

The term is 100 years old and was created to refer to everything after WWI. I don't think people using the term would actually subscribe to the idea that human development under capitalism peaked in the 1910s.

Furthermore, the entire concept was developed as a justification for the Nazi party and their economic ideas. Which I think is justification enough that people should stay away from lazy, doomy political tropes.

[JBiserkov]

Don't argue with me about definitions, I'm trying to explain what I think the GP meant and why `the "late stage capitalism" people lack rigor and don't add to the conversation` is incorrect.

Capitalism-imperialism: a system based on endless growth and expansionism, where the proletariat in the imperial core is pacified by the crumbs the capitalist give it from the plunder of the colonies; the crumbs also allow the proletariat to buy the goods and services, thus maintaining demand, sort of.

Late stage capitalism-imperialism: the entire planet in conquered, the "low-hanging" resources have been consumed, there is nowhere left to expand, except inward, so the capitalists start cannibalizing the proletariat in the imperial core by giving it less and less crumbs, in order to achieve even higher rates of profit; to remain in power, while the masses see their quality of life decline / starve, they need to consolidate more and more power. More than the absolute monarchs ever had.

> the entire planet in conquered, the "low-hanging" resources have been consumed

that same sentence canNOT be used to describe any human endeavor in any other epoch. We are in the anthropocene now.

[ahmeneeroe-v2]

okay sure, going back and forth on definitions is boring.

I just disagree that late stage capitalism imperialism is where we're at. It's not true for the US, or the west or the globe.

Yes we're in the anthropocene, and while that phrase has a negative implication nowadays, it is not true that anthropocene means "low hanging resources" have been consumed leading to uncontrolled rent seeking. It is no more true than a barracuda lurking in a coral is an out of control rent seeker. That's just the nature of barracudas.