Corporate technostructures centralized American capitalism decades before platform feudalism emerged

Evidence

By the early 1960s, the commodities that made real money were no longer the ones that prevailed in some Darwinian struggle for existence within some competitive market. No, the products that adorned every home were the ones that the Drapers and the executives of the conglomerates fashioned together in meetings at the technostructure’s skyscraper offices. There, over lots of smoking and drinking, they jointly decided the prices, the quantities, the packages and even the feelings imparted by capitalism’s leading products. Whereas capitalism had come to life by turning feudalism’s societies-with-markets into decentralised market societies, the rise of the technostructure transformed American capitalism from a decentralised market society into a centralised economy-with-markets. It was precisely what the Soviet planners had always hoped to achieve, but failed. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 157

Categorization

• XREF: Sets up the historical antecedent — a pre-digital centralized economy-with-markets — that the book’s platform-feuudalism thesis will build on as the last stage before capital gave way to cloud capital. — connects to: Networked digital technologies spawned by capitalism are enabling its replacement by technofeudalism — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 116; Corporate capitalism arose from a long decline of entrepreneurial and proletarian phases; Falling manufacturing profits drove capitalism toward data extraction via platform monopolies — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 17

Broader Connections

• Corporate capitalism arose from a long decline of entrepreneurial and proletarian phases #corroborates (0.78)
• Falling manufacturing profits drove capitalism toward data extraction via platform monopolies #corroborates (0.78) — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 17
• Networked digital technologies spawned by capitalism are enabling its replacement by technofeudalism #qualifies (0.75) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 116