Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis, published by Bodley Head, is set to be released on October 28, 2023. Varoufakis is the Left-wing former finance minister of Greece. His book argues that capitalism as we knew it has ended, to be replaced by what he calls “technofeudalism,” which is far worse than anything we have seen in the West. Traditional capitalism, in the age of industry, produced things, but Big Tech does not produce things, or capital, it charges rents, and that is feudalism. The Zuckerbergs of the world “charge rent… The people we think of as capitalists are just a vassal class now. If you’re producing stuff now, you’re done. You’re finished. You cannot become the ruler of the world anymore.”
“Imagine the following scene straight out of the science fiction storybook,” he writes. “You are beamed into a town full of people going about their business, trading in gadgets, clothes, shoes, books, songs, games and movies. At first everything looks normal. Until you begin to notice something odd. It turns out all the shops, indeed every building, belongs to a chap called Jeff. What’s more, everyone walks down different streets, and sees different stores because everything is intermediated by his algorithm… an algorithm that dances to Jeff’s tune.”