Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism“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. |
Contents
| 3 | |
| 27 | |
Cloud Capital | 182 |
The Rise of the Cloudalists and the Demise of Profit | 253 |
Escape from Technofeudalism | 265 |
| 276 | |
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Alexa algorithms Amazon American bankers Big Tech billions Bitcoin Bretton Woods Bretton Woods system capi capitalist capitalist profit cent central bank money China Chinese capitalists cloud capital cloud capital's cloud fiefs cloud finance cloud proles cloud rent cloud serfs cloud-based cloudalists commodity labour companies computers conglomerates created crypto Dark Deal debt democracy dollar Don Draper economy electricity engine Europe European exchange value experiential labour experiential value extractive power Facebook factory feudalism financialisation firms fund Global South Google Hesiod Huawei human income inflation interest rates investment iPhone iron Jack Jeff Bezos land liberal Marx Minotaur nature Nixon Shock once option owners pandemic political rentiers replaced rise ruling class sector sell shares smartphone social democrats surplus value technofeudalism technostructure terrestrial capital things third-party developers TikTok tion trillion turn Twitter Ukraine vassal capitalists wages Wall Street workers