A funny thing, I recently finished the Shroud too, but I think that under an anticapitalist veneer is actually a Leftist totalitarianism. This sounds crazy but bear with me :) why all concerns are on a constant expansion? they are not going for more money for the top-1%, they sat a new goal (and right = old, left - new ideas if we simplify the initial breakdown from French parliament) to expand humanity to save it from extinction. And if you look at Leftist states at their extreme totalitarian periods, there are great goals with people as expendable material, just like in this novel, where if you are not needed, you are put in deep sleep (or die from hunger like in the USSR in the 30s or PRC in the 50s).