Technofeudalism

Starred review from January 15, 2024
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the Economy) contends that capitalism died when the physical means of production—machines, factories, and services—were superseded by virtual platforms that, in feudal style, seek “rent” rather than surplus profit derived from labor.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.