He's not wrong. We're only a few years away from the big five in the US owning all of our land in one way or another. It's like a corporate showdown at this point. The government did nothing to stop this conglomeration of assets and wealth.
The government did nothing to stop this conglomeration of assets and wealth.
Being owned by those megacorps is a prerequisite for holding office. Why would they do anything to stop their benefactors?
He's referring not to a land grab but cloud capital charging rent to the capitalist class. Essentially creating a class as far above the capitalist as the capitalist is above the worker.
Listened to a good interview with him on a podcast last night after trying to read this shit article.
While it is far more advanced and ubiquitous, I don't see how paying to social media companies is fundamentally distinct from having to pay for ads in newspapers and TV that they did in "good old capitalism". Maybe I should look up how he puts it, but it still sounds like capitalism.
I think it's a matter of degree.
And his prime example, no pun intended, is Amazon not social media. In his view, Bezos has more in common with a feudal lord than a capitalist. And the power difference between Jeff and the capitalist is as large as the difference between the capitalist and the worker.
So, essentially, we're watching feudalism come back into power. Which itself still had commerce, markets on the King's land for example. Which, to me, does sound a lot like Amazon.
The article itself uses examples of Facebook and Twitter/X so that's where I compared it to older forms of media.
When it comes to Amazon I kinda see where that argument comes from, but I'm not entirely convinced. It's not like renting spaces and hiring services was not part of Capitalism anyway, stores had to rent space in malls. Franchising also comes to mind, where a smaller businessman has to pay to operate under a certain brand. Amazon seems a larger scale of that and I can see how that is concerning, but calling it "technofeudalism" seems like trying to gloss over the issues in regular Capitalism.
One could very well host their own services, their own internet communities and online stores. I understand that it's much harder to make them thrive compared to just being on Amazon and Facebook, but this is a way in which it's not like Feudalism. You aren't commanded by the King and the laws of the land to pay the tax, you are just competitively disadvantaged in the market if you don't. Like Capitalism.
If anything this shows the importance of trust busting, which has been pretty much abandoned in recent decades. It might even warrant the existence of public internet services much in the same way we have public radio and TV.
That's just capitalism. But I guess when you benefit so greatly from the system, you can't risk rocking the boat by talking about it openly. So you have to invent scary new names to smokescreen the root of the matter. "Technofeudalism", "Neo feudalism", "corporatism", "crony capitalism" etc, is such crap. It's still just capitalism.
Ignoring the ridiculous manner in which the article is written, look at the clownish arguments being made.
He charges rent. Which isn’t capitalism, it’s feudalism.
I know you have an island home dickhead, but the rest of us have been paying plenty of rent under capitalism.
Greece has 6000 islands.
His lives in a house on one the 227 inhabited ones.
He pays his rent writing books and giving talks against capitalism., sharing what he learned in his time as Greek finance minister, when the EU and Germany were crushing Greece with debt and forcing neoliberal policies on them the detriment of its citizens and for the benefit of the banks.
What are your plans for today ?
Capitalism has a definition. He’s saying that the markers that define Capitalism (as opposed to Mercentilism, Feudalism, etc.) are no longer there.
Specifically he’s saying that you can now no longer be on the top rung by privately owning the means of production, which is probably the biggest hallmark of Capitalism.
When you consider the definition of fascism is (as defined by the comintern) "the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital.", it's hard not to feel we are sliding into an insidious, new and distinct, technological form of it.
If you think of society through the view of class hierarchy, Jeff and people like him have created a class of power above capitalist. As far above capitalist as the boss is above the worker.
That's what he's meaning.
The article really doesn't engage much with what YV actually wrote; she says that she disagrees with him sometimes or that other people disagree, but with very little substance.
Like others have already commented, she's also excessively obsessed with describing his house and wife. I can't believe The Observer paid for her to fly out there to write such drivel.
Whatever they call it, it's shit for humans to live in.
"Capitalism is dead. Now we have something much worse"
Capitalism 2.
He's spoken on the topic elsewhere, at least a few interviews (on youtube). That'll be better than this slop - edit: the Guardian was co-opted by the UK securlty state after cops raided them soon they did their reporting on Edword Snowdon.
Yeah, this interview is pretty bad.
But this post did turn me onto his ideas and found an interview with him on a podcast last night that was really good.
But this post did turn me onto his ideas and found an interview with him on a podcast last night that was really good.
Nope but I will give that a listen too! So thanks for the link.
I'm interested in getting his book also.
It died when socialism became a corporate only condition. Now its corporate capitalism with government socialism.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
