Varoufakis, a former finance minister for Greece and now an academic and speaker on all things economics, contends that the traditional capitalism we’ve had for a few centuries is being deposed by a new form of moneymaking enabled by the internet. Specifically, the enormous ecommerce and social media platforms that make their fortunes by all the (free) labour their users put into them.

It’s not news that in the business models of TikTok, Facebook etc, we’re the product being sold to advertisers, but Varoufakis thinks that such economics are going to change the entire financial system.

He writes the whole book as a missive addressed to his father, a leftie who asked him the question that prompted the book: will the internet help the working classes or form just another asset for the rich at our expense?

If you don’t know much about high finance a lot of what’s here might be lost on you. In the final stages of the book he at least has the conviction to put his money where his mouth is, outlining a new system of equitable financial trade, tax and economic incentive he thinks would work to reclaim the reigns of power away from the tech-era robber barons before it’s too late.

If you can get past the dense and sometimes nonsensical economic theory in Technofeudalism, it’s very worthy food for thought.

Reviewed by Drew Turney

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Visit Yanis Varoufakis’ website