Late-Stage Capitalism and the Canadian Polycrisis in Living and Working Conditions: Implications for Health and Means of Responding

Abstract

There is growing concern about the health and overall well-being of societies stemming from neoliberal-oriented governments reducing their management of the economy, weakening programs and supports for the population, and shifting public goods to the private sector. As a result, a polycrisis exists in many nations related to various key social determinants of health. In this paper, we argue the Canadian polycrisis is due to the contradictions within Canadian society between the economic and political imperatives of capital accumulation (ie, profit making) with social reproduction (ie, societal continuity) associated with late-stage global capitalism. These contradictions threaten societal functioning: declining redistribution of income and wealth, reduced social spending, unwillingness to manage the market economy, and unrelenting privatization of activities once part of the public sphere. The result has been a Canadian polycrisis of growing food and housing insecurity, precarious employment, widening income and wealth inequalities, and a healthcare crisis. We argue responding to the polycrisis requires recognizing and dealing with the contradictions generated by neoliberal capitalism through profound reform or even transformation of the economic system toward a post-capitalist, socialist economy. We consider how such reforms or transformations can come about.