‘Capitalism is dead. Now we have something much worse’: Yanis Varoufakis on extremism, Starmer, and the tyranny of big tech::In his new book, the maverick Greek economist says we are witnessing an epochal shift. At his island home, he argues it’s now the ‘fiefdoms’ of tech firms that shape us
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.
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.
I hear your analysis and I think he’s jumping the gun a bit. I think what he’s pointing at is a potential for things like Amazon to become more and more feudal.
But I think you raise a lot of good points.
We do still have governments and governments are still capable of reeling in companies like Amazon. I think corporate feudalism or technofuedalism is a potential and I think he’s right that it may be closer than we realize.
But he believes we’ve already crossed that bridge. Some examples he uses to support his position is stock prices going up when the financial sector is expecting a bail out. I.e., the governments really belonging to corporate interests rather than for the people by the people.
I think his analysis is correct in a lot of ways but the term he’s using is for something we could potentially be seeing happen soon rather than a line we already crossed.
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.
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Not really, they are using public money to pass it into private hands. Its capitol but not in the way capitalism describes it because its not coming from wealth to invest in new ventures its being extracted and pocketed.
“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.
It died when socialism became a corporate only condition. Now its corporate capitalism with government socialism.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
What could be more delightful than a trip to Greece to meet Yanis Varoufakis, the charismatic leftwing firebrand who tried to stick it to the man, AKA the IMF, EU and entire global financial order?
The house is where Varoufakis and his wife, landscape artist Danae Stratou, live, year round since the pandemic, but in August 2023 at the end of a summer of heatwaves and extreme weather conditions across the world, it feels more than a little apocalyptic.
Stratou and Varoufakis are a striking couple, as glamorous as their house, a cool, luminous space featuring poured concrete and big glass windows overlooking a perfect rectangle of blue pool.
“I have no issues with luxury,” he says at one point, which is just as well because the entire scene would give the Daily Mail a conniption, especially since Aegina seems to be Greece’s equivalent of Martha’s Vineyard, home to a highly networked artistic and political elite.
I’d messaged a bunch of people to ask them what they would ask Varoufakis, including McNamee, and precised the book to him – that two pivotal events have transformed the global economy: 1) the privatisation of the internet by America and China’s big tech companies; and 2) western governments’ and central banks’ responses to the 2008 great financial crisis, when they unleashed a tidal wave of cash.
This encouraged business models that promised world-changing outcomes, even if they were completely unrealistic and/or hostile to the public interest (eg the gig economy, self-driving cars, crypto, metaverse, AI).
The original article contains 2,683 words, the summary contains 252 words. Saved 91%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Oh god, here come the liberals and communists
Cyber Feudalism
At his island home
… is where he lost me. He can call back when he has to choose between electricity and rent.
This is a weird take. Just because someone is (or has been) successful he can’t speak about or for socialism?
You can’t be successful and a socialist? Is that it? That’s a very narrow and simply wrong view which has resulted in a lot of damage in societies which adopted it.
Socialism needs succes stories. Otherwise, what’s the point? Mediocrity for all? That will never fly or become popular.
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The problem is he doesn’t walk the walk. His success comes from capitalism. He’s very well off because of capitalism.
So you can only critique capitalism if you’re unsuccessful? That doesn’t make any sense.
Why would someone talk about the pitfalls of a system while benefiting from that system?
we should improve society somewhat
yet you participate in society! curious
What? I don’t know if it’s my age or what, but I can really tell when I’m interacting with someone younger than me.
Which country doesn’t engage in that economic arrangement?
By choice or by circumstance? The rich profit from capitalism therefore they use their wealth to maintain the system that is benefiting them the most. The poor have to participate in varying degrees just to survive.
You think people choose to bust their asses for $8/hr?
You admit then that there is nowhere else in Europe for Yanis to have not participated in capitalism, unless he somehow miraculously managed to stop the dissolution of Russia and it’s friends in the 90s.
Look, the only thing I’m getting from you is the realization that you should not play baseball. You’re so focused on making your own point or trying to zing me that you’re missing the point entirely. I’m not disparaging your intellect, which you clearly are trying to prove to me, an internet stranger, but your need to champion for this guy for ANY reason whatsoever is off-putting.
I’m championing nobody, I’m questioning your silly trumptard-tier statement that Yanis is successful because of capitalism. What on earth does that even mean? You can’t level a charge of hypocrisy there when we all live in that system. Which was why I asked you which country doesn’t engage with capitalism.
Man, people like you would have dismissed Engels for the same reason.
And they should have because Engels was not only a Capitalist with contradicting class interests to our-
But a lot of his shit is just terrible, for example “oN aUtHoRiTy”, the “book” that really shows Tankies can’t read.
Engels should be dismissed the fuck out of.
Isn’t this the former finance minister of Greece? Not just some guy.
To be fair, rich (and effectively retired) people have more time to think about larger issues, whilst the rest of us are trying to make enough for rent and food. So while one can make the argument that he is out of touch, one can also argue that if it were up to the single parent working two jobs to think about global issues and write books about them, it probably wouldn’t happen.
Google “how many islands in Greece” and bathe in light of knowledge .
Maybe make your point yourself, instead of asking people to Google it for you?
The point is that Greece is a fucking island lmfao
Remind me, was Marx a part of the struggling proletariat?
The answer is no, he was a human being that cared about others besides him and his own.
