Late Capitalism

counterpunch.org wrote:These days I have not been hearing many leftists calling themselves revolutionaries—at least not in Pittsburgh, where I live. Nor have I been hearing the expression “late capitalism” recently. To be sure, many people see no credible strategy anywhere in Western capitalism for seriously reforming the system by incremental, parliamentary methods. Nor do most of them think that capitalism is going to hang around either for the next several centuries or forever.  
                                                                                           Homage to EP Thompson  August 2016

'Late Capitalism' is too good a term to let it fall into disuse. What does it mean? It's term that tells us we a) live in a capitalist system b) this system is getting older and has had centuries to 'terraform' the societies that practice it c) and it is decaying into strange forms.

Here is a re-mixed bit of Wikipedia wisdom:

1. 1700 to 1850 - Freebooter Capitalism: End of the rural era, the poor must move into cities to work at mills and workshops. Colonial plunder across the globe. Industrialization begins.
   
   
2. 1850 to 1945 - Monopoly Capitalism: The capitalists in each nation have grown so powerful that they begin to war among themselves to get the biggest pieces of the pie. Systematic plunder of colonies and imperial wars.
   
   
3. 1945 to now - Late Capitalism: The globe is now divided up into monopolies ruled by multinational corporation, capitalism is the only global system so workers are forced into world-wide competition with each other. Mass consumption of cheap goods. Manufacturing and industrial growth do not produce as much profit as the F.I.RE sectors (finance, insurance, real estate) so stock-brokers and realtors become the ruling professions.
   

The drive to make a 'profit' begins on a local national scale of competitive manufacturing (often supplemented by colonial plunder), moves into full-scale international competition and organized plunder, and as those source dry-up (due to colonial resistance and the madness of global warfare) finally devolves into the abstract manipulation of money itself through deals, contractors and stock-markets.

In late capitalism the highest rewards go to people turning meaningless, product-less work - the finance sector. Anyone who believes the propaganda about 'wall-street wizards' or 'superhero CEOs' is free to watch any of the 100s of Youtube videos on those industries. These people don't want to sweat for their work, they cannot do science, they do not have the social skills to deal with the general public, and they produce no products. It is close to medieval times where the majority of labour went to supporting clergy and royalty. It is a decaying society.

The reason people do not revolt is that they have been living under capitalistic discipline for generations. The idea that you must sell yourself to the Almighty Market to get units (i.e dollars, rubles, yuens) or die seems normal to most as it was their parents who taught them this.

Everything begins to be seen through the lens of commodity so we ignore how it came to be sold in the Almighty Market. 99-cent hamburger, $50 dollar smartphones, nature, prostitutes, employees - everything is for sale.  Globalized mass production floods out all local producers so it is normal that Sudbury miners work for Brazil, buy Chinese products and watch US media.

The Almighty Market begins to take the place of God in most people's minds. Cultural products (like art and media) sing the praises of the Market and it's Wall Street priesthood, shows about bling, hotties, pimping, bosses firing people, game-shows are about competitions to survive or become millionaires, the young dress as zombies to mourn their dying souls and people long for an apocalyse to end it all.

"Late Capitalism" is a short-hand of saying all this.

It is similar to the usefulness of the term 'planet Earth'. I will never see the globe from outer space as a planet, but knowing what it is I live on is still helpful for understanding many things. Similarly I cannot see human history from the vantage points of a the gods, but 'late capitalism' helps me situate myself. [I do not mean to compare a Marxist term with the hard sciences in terms of validity, only usefulness in my own understanding.]