Life in Late Stage Capitalism

“It’s much easier to imagine the end of all life on earth than a much more modest radical change in capitalism.”

– Slavoj Žižek

2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019

2023

Homelessness in England rises by more than a quarter.
Greek train crash kills 57, sparks angry protests:

At the rally in Syntagma Square, officers fired teargas and stun grenades at protesters who threw stones and molotov cocktails, an AFP reporter said.

A similar number demonstrated in Thessaloniki – Greece’s second largest city – where police had reported clashes on Thursday with people throwing stones and petrol bombs.

[…]

For decades, Greece’s 1,580-mile (2,550km) rail network has been plagued by claims of mismanagement, poor maintenance and obsolete equipment.

[…]

Safety systems on the line are still not fully automated, five years after the state-owned Greek rail operator TrainOSE was privatised and sold to Italy’s Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane and became Hellenic Train.
Number of U.K. children in food poverty nearly doubles in a year to 4 million:

According to the Food Foundation thinktank, one in five (22%) of households reported skipping meals, going hungry or not eating for a whole day in January, up from 12% at the equivalent point in 2022.
A second train derails in Ohio, just over a month after the last derailment.
U.S. rail workers were told to skip inspections before Ohio train crash, leaks reveal.
Record number of 2 million people in Germany depend on food banks.
U.S. lawmakers want to ease child labour to fill jobs:

The laws take aim at the number of hours that children are allowed to work and protect employers from liabilities due to sickness or accidents. In the case of the latter, those employer protections dovetail with the kind of dangerous industries the bills are looking to prop up: construction in Minnesota, and meatpacking plants in Iowa. The bills come as efforts to expand legal working ages in other states have ramped up recently, and as the US has seen an increase in child labor violations since 2015.
Large parts of Argentina hit by blackout amid heat wave.
Millions of Americans nearing retirement age with no savings:

According to U.S. Census Bureau data, 50% of women and 47% of men between the ages of 55 and 66 have no retirement savings.

[…]

According to AARP, nearly 57 million Americans work for an employer that does not offer a retirement savings plan.
60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
Denmark abolishes public holiday to boost defense spending.
France goes 31 days without rainfall, unprecedented in winter.
Antarctic sea ice shrinks to new record low.
U.K. grocery price inflation hits record 17.1%.
U.K. supermarkets limit sales of tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers due to shortages of fresh produce.
Common medications including antibiotics and children’s painkillers are in short supply across Europe:

In a survey of groups representing pharmacies in 29 European countries, including EU members as well as Turkey, Kosovo, Norway and North Macedonia, almost a quarter of countries reported more than 600 drugs in short supply, and 20 percent reported 200-300 drug shortages. Three-quarters of the countries said shortages were worse this winter than a year ago. Groups in four countries said that shortages had been linked to deaths.
Italy detains migrant rescue ship, fines charity.
Lettuce shortages reported in U.S. following ransomware attack on agricultural giant Dole.
Rental evictions in England and Wales surge by 98% in a year, while private rents in the U.K. have hit record highs.
Hundreds of thousands are without power as major winter storm blasts the U.S.
Mexico’s former public security head is convicted of taking cartel bribes:

García Luna, who headed Mexico’s federal police and became the country’s top public safety official between 2006 and 2012, has been on trial in a federal district court in Brooklyn, N.Y.

He stood accused of taking millions of dollars in bribes from the very drug cartels he was supposed to be cracking down on.
Australia’s inflation being driven by company profits and not wages, analysis finds:

Company profits, not wages, have driven the soaring inflation in Australia, an analysis from the Australia Institute has found.

The thinktank has released evidence of what it calls a “profit price spiral”, arguing big business earnings account for 69% of the inflation that is above the reserve bank’s target range of 2-3%.

[…]

Stanford says the evidence shows the additional billions of dollars in company profits have led the soaring inflation Australia is experiencing.

And that without those profit gains, inflation since the pandemic would have risen much more slowly, at just 2.7%.
Amazon, Inc. officially becomes a health care provider after closing purchase of One Medical.
Meta allegedly failed to pay around 870 million euros in value added tax in Italy.
Meta to pay 40% more for Mark Zuckerberg’s personal security amid job losses:

The rise in security spending for its CEO comes at a difficult time for Meta. It delayed the finalising of budgets to prepare a fresh round of job cuts, according to the Financial Times. The company dismissed 11,000 employees, the equivalent of 13% of its workforce, in November.
U.S. home prices hit all-time highs in 2022, with the median price increasing by 50% from January 2020.
Research indicates Gen Z are emerging as the most stressed demographic in the workplace:

According to Cigna International Health’s 2023 survey of almost 12,000 workers around the world, 91% of 18-to-24-year-olds report being stressed – compared to 84% on average.

[…]

Economic hardships are monumentally compounding workplace troubles, too. Data from a 2023 report […] shows the cost-of-living crisis is causing 84% of UK workers stress and anxiety. There are similar trends across the globe, including in Ireland, the US and Canada.

[…]

Additionally, in data from a 2022 global survey of more than 10,000 workers, […] Gen Z respondents said they were unable to switch off from work at a disproportionately higher rate than previous generations.
Tesla recalls more than 360,000 vehicles, says Full Self-Driving Beta software may cause crashes.
Trust in U.S. media is so low that half of Americans now believe that news organisations deliberately mislead them, study finds.
Exposé unmasks disinformation team that meddled in dozens of elections:

A team of Israeli contractors who claim to have manipulated more than 30 elections around the world using hacking, sabotage and automated disinformation on social media has been exposed in a new investigation.
Argentina annual inflation hits 99%.
Women’s underwear is taxed at higher rates in U.S. than men’s.
Equinor’s profit hits record on gas-price gains:

Equinor posted a record $74.9 billion adjusted operating profit […].

With net profit for the year of $28.7 billion, up from $8.6 billion a year earlier, Equinor joined global oil and gas majors such as ExxonMobil, Shell and BP in reporting record returns for 2022.
More than 50% of workers in Portugal earned less than 1,000 euros per month in 2022, while in Lisbon alone, rents jumped 37%.
Asylum-seekers in Greece have had to leave their apartments and move back into refugee camps.
Fight breaks out at Texas grocery store after free food hoax:

A power outage resulted in a fight over rotten food in Texas. […] When the store disposed of it in a large dumpster, someone falsely posted on social media that “free food” was available. Officials said more than 250 people showed up and started fighting over the discarded food.
Yale professor suggests elderly Japanese residents should die in mass suicide to help the country deal with its rapidly aging population.
BP scales back climate targets as profits hit record:

The company’s profits more than doubled to $27.7bn (£23bn) in 2022 […].

Other energy firms have seen similar rises, with Shell reporting record earnings of nearly $40bn last week.

The company […] had previously promised that emissions would be 35-40% lower by the end of this decade.

However, […] it said it was now targeting a 20-30% cut, saying it needed to keep investing in oil and gas to meet current demands.
Shell posted annual adjusted profits of $40 billion in 2022.
British military spied on lockdown critics:

Military operatives in the UK’s “information warfare” brigade were part of a sinister operation that targeted politicians and high-profile journalists who raised doubts about the official pandemic response.
U.K. climate minister received donations from fuel and aviation companies.
Lithuanian-Belarussian border is littered with the bodies of migrants, who have died trying to enter the E.U., human rights groups have alleged.
Africa has become “less safe, secure and democratic” in past decade, report finds. Security, rule of law and human rights have deteriorated in more than 30 countries.
22% of Canadians say they’re “completely out of money”.
Economic crisis in Egypt deepens:

Egypt’s currency has devalued by around one-third since late October and inflation currently stands at over 20%. Some economists suspect it’s even worse than that. They put the unofficial rate – which includes Egypt’s huge informal economy – as high as 101%.
N.H.S. waiting lists hit record high, while A&E departments experienced their worst performance on record. 7.2 million people were waiting to start routine treatment.
Face recognition tech gets Girl Scout mom booted from Christmas show, due to where she works:

A sign says facial recognition is used as a security measure to ensure safety for guests and employees. Conlon says she posed no threat, but the guards still kicked her out with the explanation that they knew she was an attorney.

[…]

Conlon is an associate with the New Jersey based law firm, Davis, Saperstein and Solomon, which for years has been involved in personal injury litigation against a restaurant venue now under the umbrella of MSG Entertainment.

[…]

MSG stated that “In this particular situation, only the one attorney who chose to attend was denied entry, and the rest of of her group — including the Girl Scouts — were all able to attend and enjoy the show.”
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution.
U.S. rail companies blocked safety rules before Ohio derailment:

Documents show that when current transportation safety rules were first created, a federal agency sided with industry lobbyists and limited regulations governing the transport of hazardous compounds. The decision effectively exempted many trains hauling dangerous materials — including the one in Ohio — from the “high-hazard” classification and its more stringent safety requirements.

[…]

But instead of investing in the safety feature, the seven largest freight railroad companies in the U.S., including Norfolk Southern, spent $191 billion on stock buybacks and shareholder dividends between 2011 and 2021, far more than the $138 billion those firms spent on capital investments in the same time period.

The same companies also slashed their workforces by nearly 30 percent in that timeframe as part of what they called “precision scheduled railroading.” Such staffing cuts are likely contributing to safety issues in freight railways.
Train carrying vinyl chloride derailed and exploded in Ohio:

Thousands in East Palestine, a town of about 5,000 people, evacuated, and officials warned the controlled burn would create a phosgene and hydrogen chloride plume across the region. Phosgene is a highly toxic gas that can cause vomiting and breathing trouble, and was used as a weapon in the first world war.
Egypt to sell discounted bread to fight inflation:

Egypt’s government already provides heavily subsidised bread to more than 70 million of its 104 million citizens. Plans to reform the subsidies were postponed as a foreign currency shortage and inflation were exacerbated by the fallout from the war in Ukraine.

[…]

Inflation has accelerated to five-year highs, and the currency has lost nearly 50% of its value since March 2021 as the government negotiated a $3 billion financial support package from the International Monetary Fund.
Tens of millions without power in Pakistan as national grid fails:

Pakistan’s national grid suffered a major breakdown, leaving millions of people without electricity for the second time in three months and highlighting the infrastructural weakness of the heavily indebted nation.

[…]

Pakistan has enough installed power capacity to meet demand, but it lacks resources to run its oil-and-gas powered plants – and the sector is so heavily in debt that it cannot afford to invest in infrastructure and power lines.
The lights have been on at a Massachusetts school for over a year because no one can turn them off:

For nearly a year and a half, a Massachusetts high school has been lit up around the clock because the district can’t turn off the roughly 7,000 lights in the sprawling building.

The lighting system was installed at Minnechaug Regional High School when it was built over a decade ago and was intended to save money and energy. But ever since the software that runs it failed on Aug. 24, 2021, the lights in the Springfield suburbs school have been on continuously, costing taxpayers a small fortune.
U.S. slaughterhouses use child labour:

Federal investigators are looking into whether 50 children — some as young as 13 — who were allegedly illegally employed cleaning Midwestern slaughterhouses were victims of labor trafficking, three officials from the Department of Homeland Security told NBC News.

[…]

The children who worked for PSSI attended school during the day and worked overnight facing dangerous conditions, with some as young as 13 and 14 found to have chemical burns on their hands from exposure to strong cleaning chemicals, according to court documents the government filed in its lawsuit against PSSI and a local police report […].
Lebanon’s middle class vanishes as economy collapses:

Lebanon’s capital Beirut has turned into a city of contrasts. Expensive cars park before popular restaurants and bars, while people of all ages rummage through bins for something edible.

[…]

Following years of massive economic contraction, in combination with a 95% devalution of its currency, the Lebanese middle class has practically vanished.

[…]

Meanwhile, talks between the Lebanese government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have led to a staff-level agreement for a program worth about $3 billion over the next 46 months. However, a financial recovery plan to protect the most vulnerable in society, was not included.
Mass lay-offs spread across U.S. tech sector:

Just this month, there have been at least 48,000 job cuts announced by major companies in the sector.

[…]

Just this week, Microsoft announced 10,000 job cuts, or nearly 5% of its workforce. Amazon said this month it is cutting 18,000 jobs, although that’s a fraction of its 1.5 million strong workforce, while business software maker Salesforce is laying off about 8,000 employees, or 10% of the total. Last fall Facebook parent Meta announced it would shed 11,000 positions, or 13% of its workers. Elon Musk slashed jobs at Twitter after after he acquired the social media company last fall.
Superyachts remain tax-free in E.U. emissions trading.
War in Tigray may have killed 600,000 people, making it one of the world’s deadliest conflicts of recent times.
Richest 1% bag two-thirds of $42 trillion in new wealth, report says:

Billionaire fortunes are increasing by $2.7bn a day, while at least 1.7 billion workers now live in countries where inflation is outpacing wages, the report said.

At the same time, half of the world’s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax for direct descendants, Oxfam said, putting them on track to pass on $5 trillion to their heirs, more than the gross domestic product (GDP) of Africa.
Peru declares state of emergency in Lima after weeks of protests.
Video game studio called “Proletariat” declines to recognise union.
U.A.E. appoints oil company boss as president of the COP28 climate conference.
Exxon climate predictions were accurate decades ago:

Researchers at Harvard University and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research analyzed Exxon’s climate studies from 1977 to 2003. The researchers show the company, now called ExxonMobil, produced climate research that was at least as accurate as work by independent academics and governments — and occasionally surpassed it.
Ghana is battling its worst economic crisis in decades, with inflation hovering at a record 50.3 percent.
Oceans surged to another record-high temperature in 2022.
Amtrak train delayed for 37 hours in South Carolina, prompts passengers to call 911 over “hostage” fears.
Haiti left with no elected government officials as it spirals towards anarchy. Last 10 remaining senators leave office, with gangs controlling much of capital, a malnutrition crisis and a cholera outbreak.
More than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest provider are worthless, analysis shows:

The forest carbon offsets approved by the world’s leading provider and used by Disney, Shell, Gucci and other big corporations are largely worthless and could make global heating worse, according to a new investigation.
Last 8 years warmest on record globally:

Average temperatures across 2022 – which saw a cascade of unprecedented natural disasters made more likely and deadly by climate change – make it the fifth warmest year since records began in the 19th century, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Pakistan and northern India were scorched by a two-month spring heatwave with sustained temperatures well above 40 degrees Celsius […], followed in Pakistan by flooding that covered a third of the country.

France, Britain, Spain and Italy set new average temperature records for 2022, with Europe as a whole enduring its second hottest year ever, Copernicus said in an annual report.

Heatwaves across the continent were compounded by severe drought conditions.
Killings by U.S. police reach record high in 2022:

US law enforcement killed at least 1,176 people in 2022, making it the deadliest year on record for police violence since experts first started tracking the killings, a new data analysis reveals.
Fewer than 40% of New Yorkers earn a living wage.
Several killed in anti-government clashes in southern Peru:

The latest casualties take the death toll from anti-government clashes with security forces to 34 since the protests began in early December […].
Elite Swiss ski resort flies snow to the slopes after mild winter:

The resort, which prides itself on sustainability, is one of many that have struggled to keep pistes open, with temperatures in Switzerland hovering around the 20 degrees celsius mark.

Given the dire situation during the festive high season, Gstaad decided to take emergency action just before Christmas by paying for a helicopter to conduct nine “snow lifts” […].

[…]

In 2020, some 100 helicopter snow lifts were conducted to ensure that the renowned Labuerhorn in Wengen could take place during the Youth Olympic Games, in Lausanne. Each flight carried just two cubic metres of snow.

“[E]mancipatory politics must always destroy the appearance of a ‘natural order’, must reveal what is presented as necessary and inevitable to be a mere contingency, just as it must make what was previously deemed to be impossible seem attainable.”

– Mark Fisher

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