Technofeudalism
What Killed Capitalism
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“Blending intellectual memoir, history, and economic and technological history, Varoufakis creates an intimate atmosphere that is a genuine pleasure to read ... It’s hard to read this book and deny its power ... illuminating.” - The Washington Post
In a revelatory and pathbreaking work, the #1 international bestselling economist opens our eyes to the new power that is reshaping our lives and the world . . .
“The Thucydides of our time.” —Jeffrey Sachs
Big tech has replaced capitalism's twin pillars—markets and profit—with its platforms and rents. With every click and scroll, we labor like serfs to increase its power.
Welcome to technofeudalism . . .
Perhaps we were too distracted by the pandemic, or the endless financial crises, or the rise of TikTok. But under cover of them all, a new and more exploitative system has been taking hold. Insane sums of money that were supposed to re-float our economies after the crash of 2008 went to big tech instead. With it they funded the construction of their private cloud fiefdoms and privatized the internet.
Technofeudalism says Yanis Varoufakis, is the new power that is reshaping our lives and the world, and is the greatest current threat to the liberal individual, to our efforts to avert climate catastrophe—and to democracy itself. It also lies behind the new geopolitical tensions, especially the New Cold War between the United States and China.
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.
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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the Economy) contends that capitalism died when the physical means of production—machines, factories, and services—were superseded by virtual platforms that, in feudal style, seek "rent" rather than surplus profit derived from labor.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.
