I don't think calling it "feudalism" is quite right, because feudalism as a system depends extensively on personal loyalties at each step of the chain of authority. The death of feudalism came from monarchs developing enough administrative power that they no longer had to depend on the loyalty of their vassals to control areas outside their personal domains.
Late-stage capitalism is definitely different than late-stage feudalism.
For example, we still have the equivalent of early Medieval English right of "socn" ("soke") — the right to withdraw our loyalty from one lord and grant it to another. We're not "tied" to our corporate overlords the same way that serfs were through strict infeudation.
A recent court case threw out most of the nonsense non-compete clauses also helped beat away or forestall the rising threat of "you can't leave with what you know... I'll make you unemployable." But that was a threat to modern day "sokesmen."
One can even establish themselves as their own freeholder by incorporating, say as an LLC, or remaining a "freelancer" like the errant knights of old.
In other terms of what I consider "corporate feudalism:"
• Do you wear any "corporate heraldry" (logo'd gear like t-shirts, hoodies, polos, backpacks, laptop stickers, etc.)
• Do you participate in any "corporate jousting?" (benchmarks, competitive bakeoffs, panel talks or meetups)
• Do you have or retain any intellectual property you've created during your employment, or was it all work-for-hire and assigned away in perpetuity?
And don't get me wrong. I am somewhat of a big fan of the medieval period and feudalism. In a way there were more freedoms under feudalism than we realize.
Certainly we had far more free time.
I just find it an interesting mental exercise to spot the commonalities and the differences of then and now.
> In other terms of what I consider "corporate feudalism:"
What about having an SP500 index fund (or other broad market fund) compose the majority of your life savings? Or your city/county/state government’s pension fund savings?
Stock options weren't available to most medieval thegns, sokesmen, villeins, cottars or bordars. In fact, there was just a lot less coinage back then overall. Hence why most taxes were renders of kind rather than coin.
There's also different concepts of weath. A medieval villein or sokesman might own 120 acres of land. A knight might own a whole 1-5 square miles of land (600 - 3,200 acres). Even a cottar might have 30-40 acres of land.
So what percentage of us are "land poor" these days in comparison? Almost all of us. Most land lots are about 0.2 acres in size in the U.S. "Not even big enough for a garden croft" a medieval bordar would have scoffed.
Meanwhile, there were urban burghers who did invest in various ventures increasingly over time. Yet "coin" was, admittedly, a tiny percentage of medieval wealth.
Sadly, today only about 3/4 of Americans even have a retirement account, and the median value is only $87,000 as of 2022. None of us are living like barons.
Just do you know, when outsiders see you talking about "late-stage capitalism", they have the same reaction as if I started talking about the CIA dumping brain control chemicals in the water supply.
