It is easy for us to find it ridiculous that many science fiction settings like Dune and Isaac Asimov's Foundation show feudalism returning in the future. I mean, feudalism could never make a return right? Such as system is simply a relic of the past, is it not? Well if certain economists and political scientists looking at current events are correct, feudalism may be making an odd comeback in a brand new form & this comeback might be hard to stop if society continues on its current course...
First, to see if such a system is truly reappearing in our modern world, we need to define what feudalism is. Well Lexico - the online dictionary powered by Oxford University - has a pretty good definition for feudalism. According to this source, feudalism was the dominant social system in medieval Europe & from this system, nobility and the Crown held all the lands. Meanwhile, the peasants - or serfs - were obliged to live on the land owned by their lord. The serfs give their lord's homage, labor, and a share of the produce. Notionally, this is supposed to be done in return for military protection, but this was not always the case.
According to McKenzie Wark - the writer of the book CAPITAL IS DEAD - we may not be in capitalism anymore, but something far worse. We might be in what libertarian economist Tyler Cowen referred to as neofeudalism: an economic system based around the emphasis on permanent extreme inequality around a global economy, and mass serfdom. In Neofeudalism, a property-less underclass survives by servicing high earners as personal assistants, trainers, child-minders, cooks, cleaners, et cetera.
Some people argue that the rise of the gig economy is a prominent part of neofeudalism and that gig workers are not truly self-employed, but are instead modern-day serfs. Unlike people who are truly self-employed, gig workers have to deal with four issues that prevent them from being truly self-employed (these issues are known as villeiny - a term for the relationship between a lord and a serf):
Add all this to the fact that in many neighborhoods, most land is owned by corporations and many are expected to pay rent to these corporate landlords with little hope of owning any land on their own and you have a recipe for the return of a modern form of feudalism, especially as income inequality continues to rise and the top ten percent of Americans hold nearly 70% of America's wealth while the bottom 50% own only about 2.5% of wealth.
So, while I prepare to write more articles about this topic, what do you think? Do you believe we are entering an era of neofeudalism where we will be living under corporate lords?
