Technofeudalism
What Killed Capitalism
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $21.99
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
Capitalism is dead. The #1 bestselling economist shows how the owners of big tech have become the world's feudal overlords.
‘What an amazing piece of work this is. Everyone should read it. 100 out of 100’ IRVINE WELSH
In his boldest and most far-reaching book yet, world-famous economist Yanis Varoufakis argues that capitalism is dead and a new economic era has begun.
Insane sums of money that were supposed to re-float our economies in the wake of the financial crisis and the pandemic have ended up supercharging big tech's hold over every aspect of the economy. Capitalism's twin pillars - markets and profit - have been replaced with big tech's platforms and rents. Meanwhile, with every click and scroll, we labour like serfs to increase its power. Welcome to technofeudalism.
Drawing on stories from Greek Myth and pop culture, from Homer to Mad Men, Varoufakis explains this revolutionary transformation: how it enslaves our minds, how it rewrites the rules of global power and ultimately what it will take overthrow it.
**A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR**
‘An epochal, once-in-a-millennium shift . . . this isn't just new technology. This is the world grappling with an entirely new economic system and therefore political power’ Carole Cadwalladr, Observer
‘With superb storytelling, Varoufakis shows how capitalism has eaten itself alive’ Brett Scott, author of Cloudmoney
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The revolution has already occurred—and while capitalism lost, communal ownership certainly didn't win, according to this sweeping polemic. Economist and former Greek finance minister Varoufakis (Talking to My Daughter About the Economy) contends that capitalism died when the physical means of production—machines, factories, and services—were superseded by virtual platforms that, in feudal style, seek "rent" rather than surplus profit derived from labor. He calls this new economic reality "technofeudalism," a system dominated by enormous companies existing largely online that transform users into the equivalent of medieval serfs, toiling (posting and networking) for free on land they don't own (apps). Walking readers through the economic developments that led to this point, Varoufakis cites the flood of cash that flowed through banks and governments in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis as the catalyst behind the monopolization of the internet by corporations like Amazon and Apple that silo users into "cloud fiefs." Throughout, Varoufakis's exuberant prose amuses. (On the financial deregulation that led to the 2008 crash: "The social democrats had become the era's lotus eaters. As they gorged on financialization... its honeyed juice lulled them into the belief that what had once been risky was now riskless.") Readers who feel burned out by intrusive apps, relentless advertising, and inexorable algorithms will revel in this fiery complaint.
