Thanks, I'll have a look at that. My own feeling is, as you say, that introducing this new term lets capitalism off the hook. If the real villain is this new thing called technofeudalism, maybe capitalism is OK after all.
Varoufakis is right to observe that things are different now to before, but wrong in his conclusion. The value is still being produced through the exploitation of productive labour; it's just that it is taking place in Bangladeshi sweatshops, Chinese megafactories etc. And the relative power of the service sector (and its marketing algorithms), especially in the first world economies, in terms of share in the division of the spoils has changed. But that doesn't mean it isn't capitalism any more. Varoufakis refers to the cut the Amazons etc take as rent (but not ground rent) but as I see it, it's not objectively different to the cut a conventional retailer would take in proportion to its capital investment. The proportion is different and that's important for us to understand, but I don't think he's on the right track rebranding it as something postcapitalist. Comradely, John On Sun, 9 Feb 2025, 23:35 Memet Çagatay via groups.io, <yasyok= yahoo....@groups.io> wrote: > The curious fact that his book is being promoted by every major capitalist > magazine, from the Financial Times to Fortune, should give us a clue about > the true purpose of the theory known as 'technofeudalism. It is an attempt > to obscure the very traditional mode of exploitation of labor underlying > tech capital which appears as giant data centers enabling us, for instance, > to video-call anyone on earth provided that they also have a smartphone and > an internet connection. So the bold assertion that the big tech produce > nothing is downright nonsense. Anyhow, I find this recently published paper > by Nicholas Gane fairly useful: > > Abstract > The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it assesses Yanis > Varoufakis’ theory of technofeudalism, and will argue, by way of response, > that capitalism has not been displaced by a resurgence of feudalism, but is > taking new forms that, increasingly, lie outside the powers of > nation-states and of social democracy. Second, it questions the > ‘libertarian Marxist’ alternative that Varoufakis proposes in its place, > which abdicates any interest in the regulatory powers of the state and, > paradoxically, advocates consumer-based political action to damage the > market position of big corporate entities, even though markets and profits > are said to be no longer central to the operation of technofeudalism. > > https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1468795X241269293 > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#35132): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/35132 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/111082773/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: marxmail+ow...@groups.io Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [arch...@mail-archive.com] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
