Musk’s rise is symptomatic of our neo-feudal capitalist times

Until recently, it was authoritarian capitalist regimes specified arsenic those successful Russia and China that were characterised arsenic plutocratic: Putin’s government, good known to beryllium dominated by almighty oligarchs specified arsenic Yuri Kovalchuk, Gennady Timchenko and the Rotenberg brothers; and China’s Communist Party, which implicit the past mates of decades has enabled the flourishing of the country’s present celebrated 1,000 billionaires, including the likes of Zhong Shanshan and Ma Huateng.

But today, it is wide antiauthoritarian states that are progressively taking connected this plutocratic feature. Donald Trump’s incoming medication successful the United States is the latest specimen – his “billionaire boys club” is stacked with Elon Musk, Howard Lutnick and Vivek Ramaswamy, among respective others. Ramaswamy and centibillionaire (with a nett worthy of $100bn oregon more) Musk are to beryllium appointed arsenic heads of a caller “Department of Government Efficiency” aimed astatine cutting immoderate $2 trillion successful “government waste” and slashing “excess” authorities regulation.

Similar moves person besides been taking spot nether Narendra Modi’s authorities successful India, which has cosied up to a fistful of tycoons specified arsenic Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani and Sajjan Jindal, with the extremity of promoting “business friendly” policies and further neoliberalising the economy. And specified a crook successful favour of the “billionaire raj” (the regularisation of billionaires) is 1 to beryllium recovered repeated crossed respective different wide democracies astir the world, including Brazil, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkiye.

So however are we to recognize this planetary displacement towards plutocracy, successful which billionaire oligarchs not lone person a stranglehold connected the system but, unprecedentedly, besides predominate politics?

An important mentation lies successful what immoderate analysts presumption arsenic a structural alteration successful the planetary system from neoliberalism, which prioritises “free market” mechanisms arsenic a mode of addressing economical arsenic overmuch arsenic societal problems, towards neo-feudalism, which describes a clip of utmost inequality nether which a increasing underclass services the needs of a fistful of the mega-rich – oregon arsenic the academic, Jodi Dean, puts it: “a fewer billionaires, a cardinal precarious workers”.

This neo-feudal setup is evidenced by today’s unprecedented emergence of planetary inequality. Since the 1980s, income inequality, for example, has accrued sharply crossed the world. This inclination has been observed successful astir each starring industrialised nations and large emerging markets, which collectively correspond astir two-thirds of the planetary population. The summation has been particularly pronounced successful the US, China, India, Brazil and Russia, precisely the ones successful which, arsenic mentioned above, plutocracy reigns. In India, the gap betwixt the affluent and mediocre is wider present than it was nether British assemblage rule.

Perhaps astir emblematic of specified neo-feudalism is what is happening successful the existent “platform economy”, nether which a tiny fig of tech companies, eg, Apple, Google, Meta, Uber, and Airbnb, person grown progressively super-wealthy and exploitative. The second person enriched their owners/shareholders, turning them into (centi)billionaires by relying chiefly connected low-cost, sweatshops, and/or precarious labour, arsenic good arsenic favourable authorities taxation and concern incentives.

And it is precisely the request to guarantee advantageous taxation and concern policies – and the request to proceed to make monolithic profits – that helps explicate the expanding engagement of concern tycoons successful authorities today. The likes of Trump, Musk, Adani and Berlusconi whitethorn good contiguous themselves arsenic men “of the people”, but their policies are intended chiefly to beforehand firm profits and marketplace shares by reducing taxes, providing charismatic concern incentives, protecting home industries threatened by overseas competition, and cutting authorities biology and concern regulations that they spot arsenic lasting successful their way.

Neo-feudal economics/politics departs from neoliberalism successful the greater grade of coercion required to make the historically unprecedented profits that person enabled the emergence of planetary billionaires. Such authoritarianism is needed to guarantee low-cost and precarious labour and to support authorities oversight and regularisation of the system to a minimum and accordant with planetary fiscal and firm power.

But if neo-feudalism is so the mode of the satellite today, if billionaire plutocracy is connected the rise, it apt means that wide democracies whitethorn beryllium heading progressively towards authoritarian forms of government. Neo-feudal enactment is what appears to beryllium required by our “gig” and “platform” economies.

Is this to accidental that the authoritarian capitalism of Russia and China whitethorn correspond not the exceptions to, but the aboriginal of, wide democracy?

The views expressed successful this nonfiction are the author’s ain and bash not needfully bespeak Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.