What Does 'Late Capitalism' Really Mean?

The cynical #latecapitalism meme going around social media calls out the inequities and absurdities of the modern economy. Google search interest in the phrase has more than doubled in the past year. In this episode of Unpresidented, Atlantic contributing editor Annie Lowrey explains where the phrase comes from, how it got so popular, and the deeper meaning of its current usage.

[compudida]

What does Late Capitalism Really mean? Let the ultimate product of Late Capitalism explain it for you!

[CiderBearUntier]

I just love the fact that american propoganda is so strong, that people think that standing up for their rights against a system that's killing them is too extreme of a measure.

[Nicholas-hoxj]

Any kid that has ever lost a game of Monopoly understands "late stage capitalism" when they flip the board in anger after one player starts to own everything and there's no way to not land on one of his/her properties and comments like "this fucking game is rigged" are heard from all but the player who has everything. It's pretty easy to understand.

[reillynewton]

"video will play after [Goldman Sachs] ad"

[kevnar]

The cynicism in this explanation feels a lot like richsplaining. "Silly internet, with their silly little memes. Ha ha. What do they know?"

[SpinosaurusTheProudSocialist]

Imagine describing late-stage capitalism as a "meme" or "joke" when anyone with a brain can see it happening right in front of our eyes. But major news companies are owned by billionaires and corporations so it's not as if they don't have a conflict of interest. 😂

[petersmythe]

Late Stage Capitalism is not a joke. It's the modern economy.

[apofis]

"30 second unskippable ad for a truck"

[JapanAlex]

She obviously hasn't read any Marx, and is reading off a prompter. Marx wrote that late capitalism is when the system becomes canabilistic which is what we are seeing today. Jobs being outsourced, and replaced with shittier, more precarious jobs. Late capitalism inherently creates grotesque wealth inequality, as nation states are bought by increasingly wealthy capitalists and financiers. This is when Marx wrote that the workers would democratise the economy, and replace capitalism with a worker-owned economy (socialism). This is literally what we're seeing play out today. Either centrists and neoliberals join the left, or we all lose out to the fascists. It's that simple.

[MichaelFrazierTube]

I'd love to see this revisited for 2021, somehow the "farfetched" feels imminently upon us.

[Epicvampire]

We've been conditioned to think in extremes, as sides or parties, rather than think logically. "Late capitalism" isn't extreme, it is an accurate depiction of our current unsustainable economic system, and we must find a system to replace it or we will literally all die. That's not extreme that's logical, extreme times call for extreme measures.

[Redpoppy]

"A more socialist left in the United States? That's already here."
Really!? Where!?

[darrenc]

It’s like joining a game of monopoly half way through after everything has been purchased.

[buddhabillybob]

Great video! It may be Late Capitalism when any measure to stabilize society through income redistribution is considered to be "socialism."

[TheOnlyFin]

You can tell she's reading straight off the prompter at every single second. From her eyes to her speech pattern.

[mountainman]

When an app that reminds you to drink water gets $50m VC funding, then you know shit is about to South

[nickc]

“Extraordinary fortunes and stagnation”? I think you mean plutocracy and abject poverty.

[nalogue]

Tenacious far-left activist Thomas Pikkety? Nah, just an academic social democrat of the type that presided over the most prosperous period of western capitalism ever. Not that there's any guarantee that would work again. We should probably try it anyway. But the idea that capitalism may have irreconcilable internal contradictions that result in its eventual collapse as a social system is hardly extreme. It's just a theory with significant current evidence to support it, e.g. massive dependence on domestic private debt in advanced capitalist economies, stagnating wages, lack of corporate will to reinvest capital in the economy to create new growth. None of these are signs of a healthily functioning capitalist *society*, although a minority of individuals are doing rather well out of it.

[CartoonManWhoo]

As an anarchist, I am happy with the term. Capitalism has a history of being mean, unfair, cruel and dehumanizing to everyone who is not part of the wealth class. We are tired of being used, exploited, treated as cogs in the wealth machine and not seeing the benefits of our labor. As anti-statist as I am, this is a system where the state should AT LEAST guarantee healthcare to all of us. America is a mutant in a sea of capitalist ogres for not at least providing us with this basic necessity.

[NoPrivateProperty]

Late Late capitalism is when we have the rich for dinner. Freedom just another word for nothing left to lose