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Werner Sombart is most famous for bringing the phrase "late capitalism" into public consciousness.
A ? of dense facts.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.791 / 3lmasz5lgtk2d
He wrote a three-volume treatise-like work titled Der moderne Kapitalismus, which was published from 1902 to 1927. In it, he lays out four stages of capitalism:
2025-04-07 20:40:13.792 / 3lmasz5lmp22d
proto-capitalism (vorkapitalistische Wirtschaft), early capitalism (Frühkapitalismus), advanced capitalism (Hochkapitalismus), and late capitalism (Spätkapitalismus).
2025-04-07 20:40:13.793 / 3lmasz5lmp32d
These generally established what many people regard as capitalism, including its political, social, cultural, and psychological aspects. I do not agree with this package deal, and neither did Rand, technically,
2025-04-07 20:40:13.794 / 3lmasz5lnod2d
who defined capitalism in a much narrower scope as a system derived from objective individual rights (not the other way around).
2025-04-07 20:40:13.795 / 3lmasz5lnoe2d
The last stage of capitalism, Spätkapitalismus, was not covered in volume 3 and was only discussed in a few lectures and articles. Unfortunately, he never wrote a comprehensive treatise on the term.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.796 / 3lmasz5lonm2d
You might be unaware of him or the origin of the term "late (stage) capitalism" because his writings and ideas rarely vanished from academic circles after World War II.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.797 / 3lmasz5lpmu2d
In the 80s and through the 90s, though, his ideas regained some attention. You might think, "Is it because of the Nazis? Did they do something to such a wonderful fighter for the people?"
2025-04-07 20:40:13.798 / 3lmasz5lpmv2d
The answer is yes! But not the way you might hope for. Sombart was often regarded as an anti-semitic Nazi intellectual, and with due cause: he supported the Nazi party and wrote sociological prose portraying Jews and Judaism negatively.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.799 / 3lmasz5lpmw2d
"Late capitalism" isn't a new term. Europeans began using it in the 1930s and 1940s in light of the Great Depression. Funny that. Many people believed the existing social order was utterly doomed. Huh. Note that between 1939 and 1945, the European economy became highly regulated.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.800 / 3lmasz5lpmx2d
In fact, in 1943 (near the end of the highest regulatory power in the European markets), Joseph Schumpeter wrote, "Can capitalism survive? No. I don't think it can." And yet, I'd like to note, 80 years later, we might still be struggling, but we're still pseudo-capitalist.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.801 / 3lmasz5lpmy2d
I don't support capitalism in the United States as it's practiced now because *it's not capitalism.* Not in the strictest of senses.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.802 / 3lmasz5lpmz2d
To me, laissez-faire capitalism is strict, as succinctly phrased, first by François Quesnay as a translation of the Chinese 無為 and then by Physiocrat Vincent de Gournay. It's based on an anecdote allegedly detailing a meeting between M. Le Gendre and mercantilist Jean-Baptiste Colbert circa 1681.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.803 / 3lmasz5lpn22d
You'll note a slight connection between the concept of laissez-faire and Taoism (proponent of 無為), and that would be astute as P. S. de Boisguilbert, one of the inventers of the concept of economic markets, had laid out the phrase "On laisse faire la nature" ("Let nature run its course").
2025-04-07 20:40:13.804 / 3lmasz5lqmc2d
If there *is* a late-stage to capitalism (I don't think there is, it's an imaginary concept), then it is *that* capitalism (mercantilism) that is failing.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.805 / 3lmasz5lqmd2d
In the 1960s, Western Marxists in Germany and Austria liked the concept of late capitalism. They used it throughout the Frankfurt School and Austromarxism
2025-04-07 20:40:13.806 / 3lmasz5lqme2d
(a variation of the school later served as the economic education of Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador, and was practiced by him to underwhelming results).
2025-04-07 20:40:13.807 / 3lmasz5lqmf2d
Fritz Vilmar and Jacques Derrida adopted the term neo-capitalism instead.
However, Theodor Adorno went further and preferred the term late capitalism over the term industrial society.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.808 / 3lmasz5lqmg2d
Claus Offe took on the task of finally defining late capitalism, something Sombart never finished as he was too busy telling people that Nazism was a new spirit to rule mankind in Deutscher Sozialismus as an old man.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.809 / 3lmasz5lqmh2d
Offe published Spätkapitalismus—Versuch einer Begriffsbestimmung in 1972. Simultaneously, Alfred Sohn-Rethel published Die ökonomische Doppelnatur des Spätkapitalismus in 1972.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.810 / 3lmasz5lqmi2d
In 1973, Jürgen Habermas published Legitimationsprobleme im Spätkapitalismus. Habermas is well known for many reasons, including his debate with Zettelkasten enthusiast Niklas Luhmann.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.811 / 3lmasz5lqmj2d
Side note: Niklas Luhmann did not invent the Zettelkasten, which is related to today's hypermedia systems. That credit goes to Conrad Gessner, who started the trend (though not precisely as it is today) using arrangeable notecards.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.812 / 3lmasz5lqmk2d
In 1975, Ernest Mandel produced a PhD entitled Late Capitalism in English. Following suit, Volker Ronge wrote Bankpolitik I'm Spätkapitalismus: politische Selbstverwaltung des Kapitals?
2025-04-07 20:40:13.813 / 3lmasz5lrls2d
And finally, in 1981, Winfried Wolf and Michel Capron elaborated upon Mandel's analysis in Spätkapitalismus in den achtziger Jahren.
The term was all the rage. I guess retro doesn't go out of style after all! 70s night anyone?
2025-04-07 20:40:13.814 / 3lmasz5lrlt2d
My goal in showing this is that the idea of late-stage capitalism is nowhere near new, and the prophecies have remained unfulfilled. I don't think they are to be fulfilled. Immanuel Wallerstein thought that capitalism was in the process of being replaced by another "world system."
2025-04-07 20:40:13.815 / 3lmasz5lrlu2d
And despite Rudolf Hilferding's softening it into jüngster Kapitalismus ("latest stage of capitalism, thus the term now), people still buy into Hegel's "end of history" to this day.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.816 / 3lmasz5lrlv2d
How does history end?
2025-04-07 20:40:13.817 / 3lmasz5lrlw2d
My conclusion is that, being historically unfulfilled over a long period in terms of ceasing operations, combined with the fact that it has a conveniently nebulous and overwrought definition, late-stage capitalism isn't a thing. It doesn't exist. There is no late stage to capitalism.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.818 / 3lmasz5lrlx2d
There isn't a life cycle to capitalism in terms of it being practiced until it can't be practiced, at least not by my more modern, less feature-creeped definition. It's a reflection of the way things naturally are, the wu wei if you will.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.819 / 3lmasz5lrly2d
Late-stage capitalism is a myth anti-capitalists like to tell themselves and repeat like an empty jingle of a giant corporation selling stuff you don't need.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.820 / 3lmasz5lrlz2d
Also, it was proposed and expounded by someone that thought the new consciousness of a highly planned life vis-a-vis Hitler's Nazism should rule over all of mankind and, that's a bit sus.
But, hey, it sounds cool, right?
2025-04-07 20:40:13.821 / 3lmasz5lrm22d
As an epilogue I should inform you, if you care about such things, or at least put on the appearance of caring about such things:
2025-04-07 20:40:13.822 / 3lmasz5lrm32d
Werner Sombart is generally seen as a minor player in sociology and his theory peculiar. Still, there is some renewed interest, and, why not? If the cyclic popular rhetorical shoe fits…
2025-04-07 20:40:13.823 / 3lmasz5lsld2d
If you like this shit please show your appreciation at ko-fi-.com/asherwolfstein and look out for my new blog where piles of this stuff will be available *for free,* no book, no sign-up, no subscriptions: asherwolfstein.com.
2025-04-07 20:40:13.824 / 3lmasz5lsle2d
*not rarely, NEARLY
2025-04-08 01:45:40.853 / 3lmbe3dmzcc24
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