Ugh, seems more like serfdom under a feudal lord. Gain protection in exchange for pledging fealty and giving up most of what you produce.
Ugh, seems more like serfdom under a feudal lord. Gain protection in exchange for pledging fealty and giving up most of what you produce.
That is kind of the opposite of living under a feudal Lord: the nonsalaried employees are in that bucket (noncitizen residents in the ancient Greek analogy).
Serfs had a voice too, and just like in a corporation, the lord had no legal obligation to listen. Similar to a corporation, that serf could just be ejected because the lord felt like it.
The Greek citizen model is that you have a voice in government, but you still can be kicked out or have your vote stripped.
The feudalism metaphor is appropriate given the lack of collective bargaining power employees have access to.
And yes, a lot of the stuff feels like feudalism. But from my perspective the feudalism part comes from topic ownership and titles, budget ownership and headcount more than from employment status. Of course you can't get your own budget if you are not a full-time employee, but just because you're a full-time employee doesn't mean you will ever get your own budget to manage.
Inequality isn't new of course, but it's getting really hard to ignore.