The Changing Face of US and Global Capitalism

Abstract

A rising tide of crises—from the Covid-19 pandemic to climate change to widening inequality -- threaten global well-being and the advances in public health of the last century. This chapter analyses how changes in 21st-century capitalism have made it more difficult for people in the United States and elsewhere to find what they need to protect the health of their families and communities. It shows how globalization, the rise of the financial sector, privatization, deregulation, and monopoly concentration have undermined people’s capacity to find healthy food, adequate education, affordable health care, safe and adequately paid work, non-polluting transportation, and meaningful connections to others. It spells out the costs of a worldview shaped by the inevitable logic of markets that requires people to align their individual and collective goals and aspirations with that logic and highlights the many organizations and movements that seek alternative visions for the future.