Technofeudalism Replaced Capitalism
Varoufakis says that we no longer live in a capitalist society and although capitalist relations remain the same, techno-feudal relations are beginning to dominate.
According to him, the traditional capitalists became "subordinate capitalists" and became dependent on and dependent on the "masters" of the new generation. These gentlemen are big tech companies making a fortune from new digital platforms.
According to him, a new form of algorithmic capital, which Varoufakis calls "cloud capital", has emerged to replace "the two pillars of capitalism: markets and profits".
Markets have been "replaced by digital trading platforms that look like markets but aren't."
Varoufakis said that when users log on to amazon.com, they "leave capitalism" and enter a "feudal domain," a digital world owned by a human and his algorithms.
This person decides which products you see. If you are a seller, the platform determines how you sell and which customers you can target. The terms of interaction, information exchange and commerce are defined by "something that works for Jeff Bezos".
Access to "digital domains" comes at a very high price. Varoufakis points out that many third-party developers make a third of their sales through the Apple Store, and that Amazon charges its sellers "35 percent of sales."
He argued that a medieval feudal lord would send a sheriff to collect most of his serf's crops because he owned the estate and everything on it.
Another thing is that big tech companies are prohibited from competing in the free market.
Users unknowingly train the algorithms of big tech companies, turning them all into high-tech "servers in the cloud"…
The 'cloud of capital' we build over time increases their ability to create more wealth and thus increases their power, which we are only beginning to realize."
According to Varoufakis, about 80 percent of the revenue of traditional capitalist corporations goes to wages and salaries, while Big Tech workers earn less than one percent of their companies' revenue.
For Varoufakis, we are witnessing a technological revolution and an economic process driven by technology. This challenges us to understand what is happening to our economy and society in the era of big technology and big finance.
