Capitalist Orthodoxy

The established, institutionalized set of beliefs about capitalism that dominate mainstream economics, policy, and public discourse—the often-unexamined assumptions that markets are efficient, that growth is good, that privatization improves services, that competition drives innovation, and that capitalism is the only viable economic system. Capitalist orthodoxy includes specific commitments: that free markets allocate resources optimally, that regulation distorts efficiency, that inequality is the natural result of differential contribution, that economic growth is the primary measure of success, and that alternatives to capitalism are either impossible or disastrous. Like all orthodoxies, it provides a framework for thinking about economics, but it can also function as ideology—making capitalist arrangements seem natural and inevitable, obscuring exploitation and harm, and delegitimizing alternatives. Capitalist orthodoxy determines what questions economists ask, what policies are considered reasonable, and who counts as a "serious" economic thinker versus a naive idealist.

Example: "She suggested that maybe growth isn't always good—and was dismissed as economically illiterate by her colleagues. Capitalist orthodoxy doesn't allow questioning of its most fundamental assumptions; they're treated as self-evident rather than contestable."

Capitalist Orthodoxy by Dumu The Void March 17, 2026

Late-Stage Capitalist Orthodoxy

The established, institutionalized set of beliefs that define mainstream understanding of contemporary capitalism—the often-unexamined assumptions about how the current economic system works and what's possible within it. Late-stage capitalist orthodoxy includes commitments that go beyond classical capitalism: that financialization is natural, that gig work is the future, that austerity is necessary, that debt is inevitable, that privatization is always efficient, that global supply chains are optimal, that technological disruption is progress, and that there is no alternative to the current configuration of capital. It naturalizes features of contemporary capitalism that are actually historically specific—making precarious work, financial dominance, and corporate power seem like simply "how things are." Late-stage capitalist orthodoxy functions to foreclose imagination of alternatives, treating the current moment as the end of history and any deviation as naive or dangerous.

Example: "He accepted gig work, stagnant wages, and crumbling public services as just 'the way things are'—not because he'd thought about alternatives, but because late-stage capitalist orthodoxy had made precarity seem like common sense. The orthodoxy's power is making contingency feel like necessity."

Late-Stage Capitalist Orthodoxy by Dumu The Void March 17, 2026