He understands the plan. There are multiple ways to exert control over the masses. The overall strategy is to kill competition and small business, keep people poor and make them dependent on the state, give them scapegoats to be angry at, trick people into attacking our enemies, and then seize power.
Many believe we are in the era of late-stage capitalism, but the truth is far more ominous. We are not witnessing late-stage capitalism—we are entering a new world of state capitalism.
Late-stage capitalism is marked by extreme wealth inequality and market distortions, but the real transformation lies in the growing fusion of government and corporate power. This blurs the lines between public and private interests, and it’s a trend spreading across the globe.
To understand why this is happening, we must first define state capitalism. It is an economic system where the state plays a dominant role in markets, often owning or controlling key enterprises while still allowing some market competition. This model has long been favored by authoritarian countries like China and Russia, but it is also emerging in nominally democratic nations like Hungary—and gaining prominence in the United States, once a bastion of free enterprise.
Why has state capitalism emerged? It is a response to financial crises and geopolitical competition. Ironically, it did not originate from capitalism but from state socialism in China.
When the Chinese Communist Party took over in 1949, it pursued full-scale socialism. The Great Leap Forward was a radical socialist initiative, but when Mao’s policies became unsustainable, Deng Xiaoping introduced market reforms in the 1980s. These reforms embraced market mechanisms, allowing competition while maintaining strong state control over strategic industries.
Today, China’s economy is a clear example of the merger between state and corporate power. State-owned enterprises (SOEs) control 25–30% of China’s GDP, dominating sectors like energy, telecommunications, and finance. Beneath them, the “state-guided” private sector includes giants like Alibaba and Tencent, which appear independent but operate under heavy government oversight, with the state exerting influence over leadership and data.
Investment in China is not driven by venture capital but by massive state funding into AI, semiconductors, and green energy—often outcompeting Western firms that function under supposedly laissez-faire conditions. For instance, BYD, a Chinese electric vehicle company, recently announced five-minute charging technology that Tesla has yet to achieve. How did they fund this breakthrough? Through direct state investment.
The broader picture is clear: China has built a powerful economy that blends market elements with top-down control. Whether the West likes it or not, this proves state capitalism is a viable alternative to Western neoliberalism.
How has the “free world” responded? By mirroring China’s approach. Though more fragmented, Western nations—especially the U.S.—have begun copying China’s model.
Several trends highlight this shift. Government-corporate partnerships are expanding across the U.S. and Europe, with the state becoming a key market player. Policies like the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act reflect direct industrial planning, government-backed investments, and strategic subsidies—closely resembling China’s playbook.
Perhaps more striking is the permanence of the bailout economy. Since the 2008 financial crisis, Western governments have repeatedly intervened in the so-called free market to prop up failing banks and corporations—at an increasingly alarming rate. Quantitative easing and corporate bailouts blur the lines between public and private wealth, undermining free-market principles.
Big Tech understands this, which is why companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Tesla have deepened their ties with government agencies, particularly in defense and intelligence. Palantir, for example, is now embedded within the U.S. security state, reinforcing the reality of government-corporate fusion.
The result? War economies dependent on state intervention. Conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have led to massive state investments in arms manufacturing and energy policy. This level of industrial planning hasn’t been seen since the Cold War.
We are caught in a feedback loop: state socialism fosters state capitalism, which in turn strengthens state socialism—repeating endlessly.
None of this would be happening if state socialism had not proven to be economically successful. China’s model has outperformed neoliberal markets in strategic industries, forcing Western countries to adapt. Faced with economic decline and China’s rise, the U.S. and Europe have chosen state intervention over free-market solutions.
You might expect corporations to resist this shift, but while small businesses may object, monopolies do not. Instead, they embrace government power, seeing the state as a reliable patron.
This is why corporations now lobby for AI regulation and government intervention—because it strengthens their market position. The more dependent corporations become on state support, the weaker market competition grows, reinforcing state capitalism.
So, are we in late-stage capitalism or something new? While wealth concentration, monopolization, and corruption resemble late-stage capitalism, the reality is more complex.
What we are witnessing is not capitalism’s decline, but its transformation into a hybrid model—a consolidation of corporate and state power that transcends traditional capitalism-versus-socialism debates.
Whatever you call this system, its effects are profound. Classical free markets are dying, as competition is now dictated by state priorities rather than market forces. Technocratic control is expanding, with governments and corporations using AI, surveillance, and data not just to control economies but to engineer them in ways that previous systems could not.
This is far more alarming than late-stage capitalism. What is emerging is a permanent crisis economy—where pandemics, wars, and financial instability (often manufactured by the state itself) justify never-ending government intervention.
The result is a world where state capitalism, not late-stage capitalism, defines the 21st-century economic order.
Ironically, this evolution stems from China’s state socialist roots, leading to a global model that fuses government power with corporate wealth.
Whether this system can sustain itself or will collapse under its own contradictions remains uncertain.
But one thing is clear: the classical free market is dead, and what we have now is state capitalism.
