Background
Capitalism is perceived to be a flexible and adaptive system, able to survive terrible catastrophes including two world wars and an enormous number of smaller wars - suggesting, for many thinkers, that the end is not yet near. Vladimir Lenin famously declared that there are no "absolutely hopeless situations" for capitalism. This, however, does not deter critics of the system, who point to its relative newness, the rapid collapse of prior orders of much greater duration, the effects of modern communications on class consciousness, and a general perceived inadequacy of its ability to deal with various crises of its own making and other long term structural problems.
Immanuel Wallerstein believes that capitalism may be in the process of being replaced by another world system.
Others however see late capitalism in the 21st century as very much in active development; and characterised by a new mix of high-tech advances, the concentration of (speculative) financial capital, and Post-Fordism - all producing a backdrop of increasing differentiation in wealth/security between the better off and the worse off.
Read more about this topic: Late Capitalism
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