Late Capitalism

[David Morris]

Let’s get more specific:

Inherent in the current use of the term, “late capitalism,” is a critique
of observed problems of the modern practices of capitalism.  But the term
isn’t new:

“ The term "late capitalism" was first used by Werner Sombart
<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Sombart> in his magnum opus Der
Moderne Kapitalismus, which was published from 1902 through 1927, and
subsequent writings; Sombart divided capitalism into different stages:
(1) proto-capitalist society from the early middle ages up to 1500 AD
(2) early capitalism in 1500–1800
(3) the heyday of capitalism from 1800-1914(WW1)
(4) late capitalism: 1914 until today.”

“The term late capitalism began to be used by socialists in continental
Europe towards the end of the 1930s and in the 1940s, when many economists
believed capitalism was doomed.”

At the heart of the term is the question of whether current problems are
due to abuses and corruptions of the system, or whether the problems are
inherent to the system.  Another question is about the nature of reforms or
regulations that make capitalism a hybrid system.  Is a Reformed/Hybrid
Capitalism still “Late Capitalism?”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_capitalism
Modern usage of the phrase and further evolutionEdit
<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Late_capitalism&action=edit&section=4>

According to a 2017 article in The Atlantic
<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlantic>, the term "late capitalism"
is again in vogue to describe modern business culture, although with a
semantic change or an ironic twist. "Late capitalism" has become a
catch-all term for various phenomena that express capitalism's distortions
of human life, and it is often used in critique and satire. This usage also
conveys a sense that contemporary capitalism cannot go on like it does
forever, because the problems created by business are getting too large and
unmanageable.

The phrase “late stage capitalism” is used commonly as a critique of the
fascistic qualities that emerge in the later stages of capitalism.
Capitalism to many may seem to be free of this exploitation if not taken to
the extremes of “late capitalism”. A competing viewpoint is that
“Capitalism, in its orthodoxy, is a system that relies on authoritative,
controlling, and exploitative relationships, most notably between that of
capitalists and workers”, and that this is not something that emerges out
of a devolving system but rather is present in the framework of the system
itself.