Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars | 676 ratings

Price: 17.46

Last update: 03-14-2025


About this item

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 . . .

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.


Top reviews from the United States

  • Michael Harper
    5.0 out of 5 stars Time to Examine Our Heritage and Direction
    Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2024
    It's time to reexamine our assumptions about capitalism and the changing role of capital in a post-globalization, post-2008 financial collapse in light of the rise of a rent-based, cloud-based, surveillance economy run by unaccountable billionaires. Written by the former Minister of Finance for Greece and professor of Economics, Varoufakis presents an easy to follow history of economic principles and examines emerging trends that are changing the foundations of the global economy and Democracy itself. An entertaining and thought-provoking read I'm happy to have found.
  • S Rosenbaum
    4.0 out of 5 stars Solid critique and he offers a good solution in the end.
    Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2024
    Solid critique and he offers a good solution in the end. Drags in the middle a little. Type of book you will wish more people will read to digest the ideas, rather than repeat the same old we have heard.

    Unfortunately, because it offers a new way of thinking that tries to depart from the black/white, communist vs capital world we are used to at the end, people will probably ignore it. Or get scared of it and describe it as something it is not. Which of course makes it the reason everyone should read it.
  • MrThankful
    5.0 out of 5 stars A very important book for the troubles ahead.
    Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2025
    Capitalism has died and we're too blame. A compelling argument for what happens when the central bank recklessly pumps money into businesses. The AI is here and we can only hope the wise words in this book can help us forge a new future.
  • Travis
    5.0 out of 5 stars An interesting (if not under discussed) perspective
    Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2025
    Though the proposed solution at the end has flaws (i.e people actually working in their own best interests, the serf class awareness of their situation, etc.) the book is a solid historical underpinning of the evolution from feudalism to capitalism and the strong trending towards technofeudalism.

    While I may not fully agree with the end solution, I do unfortunately agree with pretty much everything else written. I also appreciate the irony of positing this review into the algorithms of one of the cloud capitalists.
  • Conor Knapp
    5.0 out of 5 stars Important moment in modern economic theory
    Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2023
    Every so often an idea comes along that changes how we look at things. A good theory does that, but a great theory goes a step further and forces us to reevaluate all of our concepts up to the present moment. Varoufakis accomplishes this here, guiding us to take a step beyond capitalism into, not our future, but our present. Techno-Feudalism, in a crudely simple sketch, is about the merging of capital markets and technology, and how this has fundamentally changed the nature of capitalism. Varoufakis argues that it has changed it so much so that it is actually no longer capitalism because of two key ingredients that are now missing from capitalism: markets and profit. Now he doesn’t mean missing as in they are gone, but that they are no longer the central ideas around which today’s capitalism is organised. He does a phenomenal job bringing us up to date with a recap of how we got to this stage of capitalism and his arguments are not only well argued and eleoquent, but also deeply personal. This book is dedicated to his late father and at many points in the book he uses their dialogues together as a basis for asking/answering questions, a device he used also to great effect in “Talking to My Daughter about Capitalism”. He also uses Mad Men and the character of Don Draper to exemplify old capital vs. new capital, a comparison I was thrilled to read because I have always felt like that show is incredibly interesting from an economic ideological perspective. Overall this book is very well written, relevant, deeply enjoyable, and I believe Varoufakis’ theory of Techno-Feudalism will only prove more accurate with each passing year.
  • Isolatrix
    3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting POV, but wrong
    Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2024
    Yanis Varoufakis is an engaging presence as any of his Youtube interviews shows. He claims he has arrived at the idea that platforms like Amazon, Apple's store, and Facebook are what he calls technofeudalisist entities. By this, he means that they control wages to keep them low, and gain free work from users who he calls serfs. Most people would call these entities monopsonists whose worsening conditions enrich the platform's owners "enshittification" as Cory Doctorow has coined.

    Why is technofeudalism as a new term wrong? IMO, for several reasons:

    Feudalism ensured that serfs had no choice. They could only work for the fiefdom, usually farming. They could no move to another fief. The harvest that they had to turn over only benefitted the fief lord.

    Firstly, In reality, there is no forced working for low wages or for free for the platforms. One can avoid the platforms entirely. Even if you don't, platforms like Amazon, do have competitors, e.g. Walmart for groceries. So the control is only partial. Facebook and Apple do create walled gardens that make escaping hard. I am particularly thinking about Apple's iTunes which has a very high wall to escape if you have extensive playlists. So while the platforms do their best to keep suppliers and users, this is not like medieval feudalism.

    Secondly, the free work we users provide as "technoserfs" does provide value to the user. Amazon's reviews, however imperfect and gamed, provide valuable feedback on products and services, that one doesn't get at brick-and-mortar stores.

    Thirdly, the claim that manufacturers of MUST use the platform to benefit the platform fief or die is extreme. There are many manufacturers that do not, as even the most cursory glance would tell you, and they seem to do fine.

    Yes, the growth of the biggest platforms did benefit from post-2008 financial collapse low-cost capital. But as Ben Thompson (Stratechery.com) has long explained, there is huge value to be gained from aggregation. It reduces search costs, creates simplified transactions, and the network effect benefits users.

    The real problem is the government, especially in the US, of allowing platforms to control user inputs and extracting very high rents for sellers. This is allowing the same evils that monopolists and monopsonists have demonstrated in the past and could be legislated against. It is why we don't like "company towns", and use antitrust to create competition. If our data was legally ours, and there was forced interoperability using standards, then the walled gardens would be much lower.

    So while Varoufakis has identified some features of the problems of platforms, he analysis is forced, and I believe, incorrect.

    Having said that, the book is an easy read, with and interesting family backstory, and an interesting presentation rather like an extended letter to his very Communist father. I didn't find the analysis convincing, and his utopian economic solution for the post-capitalist world even less so. YMMV.
  • Randy Lee
    5.0 out of 5 stars This is a serious explanation from a serious economist - a must read.
    Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2024
    Wasn't sure what to expect from this when I got it and wasn't sure who the author was. Until I got into it. Wow. written by the ex-finance minister of Greece, this book is absolutely one that should be on anyone who wants to understand macro-economics reading list!

    Where we are right now and how we got there, and why, from feudalism itself to the present cloud driven economy.

    • Best Sellers in

     
     

    The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 5,018
    15.75
     
     

    Killing Sacred Cows 2.0: Crush Money Myths & Live Your Richest Life

    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 11
    17.46
     
     

    How to Day Trade: The Plain Truth

    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 491
    14.95
     
     

    Financial Intelligence: A Manager's Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean

    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 2,353
    15.47
     
     

    One Up On Wall Street

    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 384
    9.84
     
     

    Economic Facts and Fallacies

    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 200
    13.62
     
     

    The Everything Token: How NFTs and Web3 Will Transform the Way We Buy, Sell, and Create

    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 85
    13.78
     
     

    How to Retire on Dividends: Earn a Safe 8%, Leave Your Principal Intact

    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 801
    13.08