Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis

The Internet feels less democratic than it used to. But is it less capitalist? Author Yanis Varoufakis, former Finance Minister of Greece, argues that it is. This book describes the evolution of capitalism into a novel economic system that is also a throwback to the Middle Ages: technofeudalism.

Join us as we discuss Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis.

Book description from Amazon:
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.