The New Feudalism: Managerial Oligarchy

Abstract

The growing affluence in the first decades of the post-war era provided employers and the middle class with enough financial reserves not to be fearful of the worst, and gave workers the feeling that they were sufficiently protected by Labour Unions, social legislation, and their power at the ballot box not to be inordinately concerned about their future. Before long the “dual mechanism” driving force began to weaken; greed was taking the place of fear and complicity the place of solidarity. But greed is not like fear, it is a different kind of fuel, and when the ownership of means of production becomes divorced from their management it affects the economic mechanisms in another way.