[...] we can draw on Immanuel Wallerstein's notion that historical capitalism is characterized by a "system-level problem." That is, profits can be made - even with the partial de-commodification of labor and the establishment of expensive social contracts - as long as those concessions are made to only a small percentage of the world's workers. As Wallerstein put it, with reference to the post-Second World War social contracts: "One could cut in several-hundred-million western workers and still make the system profitable. But if one cut in several billion Third World workers, there would be nothing left for further capital accumulation" (1995: 25).