Wednesday, August 23, 2023

William Mitchell — New feudalism seems to forget about the capitalists

Bill on feudalism and capitalism. 

Capitalism and feudalism are essentially different in that land is the dominant factor in feudalism and land rent is the chief means of expropriation. Under capitalism, capital and expropriation of surplus value through industrial (technological) production along with financial rents are the dominant factors, although land and land rent are also still key in generating passive income resulting from ownership (title). That is to say, capitalism and feudalism are based on different institutional arrangements but capitalism has incorporated and modified some of the institutional arrangements of feudalism.

The question that Bill raises is about whether it is valid to view capitalism as a sort of "neofeudalism." He introduces some important issues.

William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
New feudalism seems to forget about the capitalists
Bill Mitchell |rofessor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia P

1 comment:

Peter Pan said...

The best way to render a term meaningless is to slap neo in front of it.

Living in a company town, on company land, shopping at the company store, working for the company, might be termed feudalism - if the owner of the company believed that you and he were ordained by God to be in those positions.

Vagrancy (not belonging to any lord) was punishable by death.