Yanis Varoufakis’s Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism argues that the capitalist system has been replaced by a new, even more exploitative economic order he calls technofeudalism.
The book has generated significant discussion that stems from this original take on big tech’s power, though its core premise has caused controversy.
Varoufakis, an economist and former Greek finance minister, who rose to prominence for his resistance to the EUs imposing austerity in Greece, during the financial crisis contends that capitalism did not collapse but rather transformed quietly, driven by the privatization of the internet and the monetary response to the 2008 financial crisis.
His argument rests on two key transformations: the replacement of traditional markets with digital “fiefdoms” controlled by companies like Amazon and Google, and the shift from profit generated by production to “cloud rent” extracted by platform owners simply for granting access.
In this new system, users become “cloud serfs” whose unpaid digital labor fuels the algorithms, and even traditional capitalists are reduced to “vassals” paying tribute to the new feudal lords, the “cloudalists.”
The book has been praised as stimulating and accessible, using vivid analogies to explain complex economic shifts. However, it has also been heavily critiqued, with many arguing that the feudal analogy is ahistorical and that what Varoufakis describes is better understood as an extreme form of monopoly capitalism rather than a wholly new system.
From a Christian perspective, the analysis of technofeudalism resonates deeply with concerns about human dignity, community, and idolatry. The concept of “cloud serfs” aligns with a Christian critique of systems that reduce human beings to mere data points and sources of unpaid labor, undermining the inherent dignity and worth bestowed upon each person as Imago Dei, or as made in the image of God.
The extractive nature of “cloud rent” can be seen as a modern form of exploitation, condemned by biblical principles of economic justice, fair wages, and warnings against the love of money as a root of all kinds of evil.
We might also identify the concentration of power in the hands of “cloudalists” as a form of idolatry, where technology and the platforms themselves become modern-day “principalities and powers” that compel allegiance and have the power to distort human destiny and agency.
The digital fiefdoms Varoufakis describes often foster isolation, envy, and anxiety, eroding the fabric of genuine community that should be central to Christian life, and indeed the church fostered widely within society until comparatively recently.
While Varoufakis proposes a “cloud rebellion” based on democratic control, a Christian response would emphasize the need for a deeper, moral conversion that prioritizes the common good over individualistic consumption and champions solidarity wwith the marginalized who are most exploited by this new system.
The solution is not merely political but also spiritual, calling for a renewal of conscience that recognizes the proper place of technology as a tool to serve humanity, not to rule over it.
Whilst we may debate the accuracy of the “technofeudalism” label, the book succeeds in vividly diagnosing a profound spiritual and moral crisis within our economic order, a crisis that demands a response grounded in both justice, love and joy.
By Damian J. Hursey
Joy in Enough 