Smashing Capitalism?

Barbara Ehrenreich commenting on the recent financial meltdown and credit crunch:

Global capitalism will survive the current credit crisis; already, the
government has rushed in to soothe the feverish markets. But in the long term, a
system that depends on extracting every last cent from the poor cannot hope for
a healthy prognosis.

Capitalism has proven to be amazingly resilient. It's lasted a lot longer than Marx or anyone else would have predicted. The reason is that capitalists have been remarkably inventive in finding new ways to exploit the poorer classes, which nowadays includes just about everybody but the ultra-wealthy. However, as resources become scarcer, e.g., oil, the challenges facing the capitalist class will become more daunting. This is the unhealthy prognosis I see lying ahead for our system.

Jim