@DGI If it was feudalism, the great and good would have obligations to the lowly in fact as well as law.

What they're trying for can be described the mammonite flavour of a god-king autocracy. (It is supremely unhelpful that being a CEO makes you a god-king inside your corporate entity. That'd be a major design flaw to fix if there were any sense in keeping the limited liability corporation around.)

In effect, you owe the autocrat your life, and they get your entire labour in recompense.

@graydon @DGI

Though the serfs back then also often fantasized about the violent deaths of their oppressors.

The Fire-Spraying Cherries

Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles Wiki (wiki.sunkencastles.com)

@juergen_hubert @graydon @DGI I am really not on board with how a certain segment of the left romanticizes old-fashioned feudalism because it was terrible.

@MisuseCase @graydon @DGI

Yeah, there is a lot of romanticism revolving around the "family farm" - but at least in the period of 19th century Germany I am studying, the "family farms" were supported by a large underclass of tenant farmers, farmhands, and maids.

There is a reason why millions of German emigrated to the USA and other European colonies.