• penquin@lemm.eeEnglish
    81·
    2 months ago

    Technofeudalism has taken over now. It’s even worse than capitalism

    • Hexboare [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      18·
      2 months ago

      I haven’t read Varoufakis’ book but I can only assume it completely misuses the term feudalism and tries to make a case for “ethical capitalism” (or overtly or by implication), as though you can point to a particular period of capitalism when everything was great and the US wasn’t dropping incendiaries or napalm on kids in Asia

      • novibe@lemmy.mlEnglish
        6·
        2 months ago

        Varoufakis is a commie so the book doesn’t make a case for “ethical capitalism”, no. Not sure if he is a Marxist, but I’m pretty sure he has called for a revolution many times.

        Edit: I think his point is not so much that we’re at a completely different system, but that the current mutation of capitalism is so far removed from what people think of as capitalism that we need new language to talk about it.

        • Hexboare [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
          2·
          2 months ago

          I just started reading it, he directly says it’s a different system and not just a mutation on the second page

          In the years after it was published, first in Greek, later in English, my weird hypothesis that capitalism was on the way out (and not merely undergoing one of its many impressive metamorphoses) gathered strength…

          So, what is my hypothesis? It is that capitalism is now dead, in the sense that its dynamics no longer govern our economies. In that role it has been replaced by something fundamentally different, which I call technofeudalism.

        • penquin@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          You are correct in your edit. Many things in the book made sense. I enjoyed reading it.

      • penquin@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        I’m happy to let you know that your assumption is incorrect :). I highly suggest that you read the book. It was a nice change from all the sociology I normally read. I actually liked the book. Of course it’s not perfect, but many things in it make sense.

    • Wheaties [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      17·
      2 months ago

      Feudalism is a rigid class structure determined by blood inheritance. That’s not really what we have. A noble who looses their money would still have the privileges and rights granted by their title - they would still be part of the ruling class. If a member of our ruling class were to loose their money, loose their source of passive income, they’d very quickly no longer be part of the ruling class.

      • penquin@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        I never said feudalism, it’s technofeudalism. Two different things. To understand it more, I’d recommend you read “technofeudalism, what killed capitalism” by Yanis Varoufakis.