Can capitalism be saved?

“Neoliberal” capitalism, which appeared in the early 1980s, is now face d with four key challenges: The constant skewing of income distribution against wage earners, who receive only a small share of productivity gains. This i s driving up inequality and poverty; The destruction of intermediate jobs (industry, repetitive services), which is polarising the labour market (jobs are concentrat ing at both extremes: high-skilled and low-skilled), driving up inequality and holding back social mobility. This labour market polarisation results much more from technological progress than from globalisation; The climate crisis. CO 2 emissions are rising much too fast to meet the international climate commitments ; t his also poses an additional threat to intermediate jobs and entails a risk of technological error; The decline in long-term growth and productivity gains despite companies’ innovation and modernisation effort, which makes the increase in the profit share of GDP all the more unsustainable. It is important to not overlook the achievements of neoliberal capitalism: sharp rise in living standards and in living conditions, very sharp fall in poverty in emerging countries. But today, these four challenges of capitalism are clearly overshadowing these achievements in the eyes o f public opinion. Some believe that “neoliberal” capitalism will not be able to rise to these challenges and that it will be necessary to organise society in a different manner : Chinese-style state capitalism, socialism, etc. Could “neoliberal” capitalism be reformed in response to these four challenges? We examine them and the possible responses .