The end of capitalism has begun

In The Guardian last week the headline: The end of capitalism has begun took me by surprise. It's not the headline per se that's surprising, but that such a headline would be in a mainstream paper like The Guardian.

I have some links that seem relavant to the article to put together in one place.

The Guardian article was about Paul Mason's book, PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future.

Two left critiques are worth notice:

LBO News from Doug Henwood. Workers: no longer needed? So-Called “Post-Capitalism” is Just Another Crappy Capitalist Snowjob

Capitalism has three major characteristics: private property, capital accumulation, and wage labor. Henwood and Stephanie McMillan are concerned primarily with wage labor. Immanuel Wallerstein sees a breakdown of capital accumulation. Mason address all three characteristics of capitalism in his argument for the end of capitalism.

Jonathan Derbyshire's interview with Mason in The Prospect provides more.

I'm a fan of Henwood's Left Business Observer, but I think  dismissive attitudes towards Paul Mason's arguments miss their importance. It seems to me that when capitalists are talking seriously of postcapitalism it's important to hear the arguments and to see where they lead.

Not a critique of Mason's book, but relevant from a broadly pro-capitalist perspective is: Hernando DeSoto: The Poor Against Piketty

Also not a critique of Mason's book, but relevant from a Marxist perspective is Slavoj Zizek: The Ideology of the Empire and its Traps