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Comment by Mainan_Tagonist | Hacker News Reader

The same old rant, over and over... Communistic rethoric is unable to evolve, it merelly reproduces the same criticism over time, pinpointing the same flaws just changing the target.

Ho, and punching Hayek, 30 years after his death, is really beneath contempt.

Technofeudalism is something you can choose to be a part of or not. You can (and should) pay for email, news and other services and you may or may not choose the cloud, most do not by the way.

So really, who is Varoufakis talking about?

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Many people do not have the disposable income to pay for email, news, or other services and even among those who do, aren't economically educated enough to think about the systemic downsides of taking the free option. Systemic problems are uniquely difficult to address at the individual level through individual action.

You may have the skill, knowledge and wealth to pay for email, news and services, but a large part of the population doesn't and they will drag you down with them.

Edit: typo, 'to' instead of 'the'

yes, and this large part of the population does not therefore have the means to become a technoserf.

Why not? Non-engineers seems always be the most eager to use the cloud to the most extreme.

It is your tech-illiterate friends that hook you into the toxic cloud merely by having your contact information.

Technology changes social interactions.

The cloud isn't free though, neither is shopping on amazon. Private Email (protonmail) starts at... 4 dollars a month... In light of this, are "technoserfs" who use and pay for the cloud (on not so cheap mobile phone, mind you) really the victims? Or are they just regular people who rate certain things as higher priority than others, and it is that hierarchy that displeases Mr Varoufakis so much.

For the rest of your point, everything (class, affluence, age, technology, etc...) changes social interaction, all the time, always.

> Communistic rhetoric

You remind me of my friend, who calls everything communist. I recited to him some writing from the French revolution, apparently it was communist before communism was invented.

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