Late-stage capitalism is an economic system in which the dynamism and enormous potential of market-based systems are used to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a few, leading to a variety of social, economic, and environmental anxieties. It is a system characterized by precarious labor and extreme concentration of wealth, wealth-hoarding, and skyrocketing inequality, with as many as 70% of the world's wealth held in the hands of the wealthiest 1%. This late stage of capitalism is made possible by the out-of-control use of technology and capital, and the failure of both governments and corporations to address the underlying causes of global inequality.

See also: neoliberal capitalism, capitalist system, post capitalism, living planet