What does ice cream have to do with ‘late capitalism’?

‘More to my taste is Trockenbeerenkapitalismus,’ said my husband with an intonation that indicated a joke. The joke was a play on the German Spätkapitalismus, ‘late capitalism’. There is also a German wine category called Spätlese, ‘late harvest’, and another, when the grapes are exposed to noble rot and allowed to wither on the vine, called Trockenbeerenauslese. Hence the joke. I do not encourage this sort of thing.

But late capitalism deserves no encouragement either. It is generally used to mean anything thought unpleasant about life in western society. I’ve found the phrase attached to Black Friday, two-scoop ice-creams, low wages, James Bond film songs, Pret a Manger, Sinéad O’Connor, cryptocurrency, the monarchy, New Yorker baseball caps and dental insurance.