Serfs of the 21st Century: How Corporate Feudalism Displaces the Working Class
Corporate feudalism is not a new phenomenon but rather the modern manifestation of deep-rooted capitalist tendencies that have existed since the industrial era. It reflects the same patterns of wealth concentration, exploitation, and dispossession that have historically driven capitalist economies. Today, we see large corporations assuming the role of modern-day feudal lords, controlling essential resources like housing, healthcare, and utilities, whilst ordinary workers are left dependent on these entities for their basic needs, much like serfs. Today’s article argues that corporate feudalism is an extension of the same economic forces that have always prioritised profit and power over the well-being of the working class, tracing its roots back to the earliest days of industrial capitalism.
To understand the full impact of corporate feudalism, we will examine this system through the lens of Critical Theory, which exposes the underlying structures of power and oppression that keep the working class in a state of dependency. Additionally, the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) offers a useful tool for understanding how these economic systems create perceived threats, shaping the experiences and responses of those most affected by corporate power. By focusing on the lived experiences of the working class, we can see how corporate feudalism not only threatens their material well-being but also shapes their identity and sense of agency.
Historically, we can draw parallels between today’s corporate-driven displacement and the Highland Clearances of 18th and 19th-century Scotland. The Clearances were not just acts of forced migration but a form of cultural and economic genocide, as the Gaelic people were dispossessed of their land, livelihood, and way of life to make way for profit-driven ventures. Much like then, the Global North today is experiencing a new wave of disruption, where corporate control and financialisation are displacing working-class communities, leaving many in precarious economic situations.
Historical Roots of Capitalist Exploitation
The roots of capitalist exploitation can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution and the early days of industrial capitalism, a period marked by the systematic concentration of wealth and land in the hands of a few, often at the direct expense of the working class. As industrialisation spread, a partnership emerged between the state—represented by the Crown—and wealthy landowners, who enacted policies to secure their economic power. One of the most notable tools of dispossession was the Enclosure Acts in the area now known as the United Kingdom, which forcibly removed common people, especially the Gaelic communities, from their lands. The Enclosure Acts privatised what had been common land, turning it into private property, leaving the Gaels, who had traditionally relied on communal farming and grazing, without the resources to sustain themselves. This partnership between the Crown and the landowners set a precedent for the way public resources could be seized for private gain. Today, we see a similar dynamic with corporate capture of regulatory bodies and legislators, where corporations influence policies to claim public goods—such as water, housing, and healthcare—leaving the modern working class similarly dispossessed and dependent.
One of the most devastating examples of this historical pattern is the so-called Highland Clearances in Scotland during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Clearances were a calculated effort by wealthy landowners, with the support of the Crown, to transform the Highlands into profitable sheep-farming territory. This economic shift displaced thousands of Gaelic-speaking Highlanders from their ancestral lands, as they were forcibly evicted to make way for large-scale agricultural operations. The Clearances were not only acts of economic displacement but also of class violence, with landowners using their economic and political power to uproot entire communities for the sake of profit. What followed was a form of cultural genocide, as the Clearances tore apart the social fabric of Gaelic life, erasing centuries of tradition, language, and communal ties. The Highlanders were forced either into urban poverty in places like Glasgow or Edinburgh or into emigration, scattering across the globe.
The genocide of the Gaels was not just an economic upheaval; it was an act of ethnic cleansing, where an entire people were systematically displaced, their way of life destroyed to serve the interests of a capitalist elite. The land was no longer a communal resource but a commodity to be bought, sold, and exploited for profit. This process of land privatisation led to the erasure of the Gaelic culture, language, and identity, as the Clearances violently disrupted centuries of social and cultural continuity. Today, this same process is mirrored in the corporate-driven policies of the Global North, where financialisation and corporate interests displace working-class communities in the name of profit. Whether through gentrification, corporate land grabs, or the privatisation of public goods, the modern working class faces a similar kind of dispossession, where the basic necessities of life are commodified and controlled by corporate interests. Just as the Gaels were driven from their homes and livelihoods, so too are many in the Global North now being displaced by the forces of corporate feudalism.
Corporate Feudalism as Modern Capitalism
Corporate feudalism refers to a system in which power and control over essential resources are concentrated in the hands of corporate elites, leaving the working class increasingly dependent on these entities for basic needs, much like serfs under feudal lords. In this model, corporations have become the modern-day aristocracy, controlling vast swathes of the economy, such as housing, healthcare, and utilities, while the working class is forced into economic subservience. Workers have little agency, as their livelihoods and access to basic services are tethered to corporate interests. The relationship between the working class and corporations mirrors the feudal structure, where serfs were tied to the land, unable to break free from their lords, and today’s workers find themselves similarly trapped, bound by precarious employment, rising costs, and the commodification of essential goods.
The rise of corporate feudalism can be traced directly to neoliberal economics, which promotes privatisation, deregulation, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. Neoliberal policies, beginning in the late 20th century, dismantled many public institutions and services, handing them over to private corporations. This process has created what is essentially a new aristocracy: a corporate elite that controls not only the economy but also political power. Systemic disinvestment in public goods—like housing, healthcare, and education—under neoliberalism mirrors the earlier capitalist regimes that also prioritised profit over the well-being of the working class, as seen in the Highland Clearances. Then, as now, the working class was dispossessed of land and resources, sacrificed for the sake of capital accumulation.
This historical continuity demonstrates that corporate feudalism is not a new phenomenon but the natural evolution of capitalist systems. Just as the Gaelic Highlanders were cleared from their lands for sheep farming, today’s working class is being displaced by gentrification, privatisation, and corporate monopolies. Financialisation has played a central role in this process. Through the commodification of basic necessities like housing and water, financial markets have deepened inequality, creating an environment where even the most fundamental human needs are subject to speculation and profit extraction, further disenfranchising the working class.
Many mainstream economists now warn that the Global North is on a dangerous trajectory, where democracy is being undermined. There is increasingly little connection between elected representatives and the people they are supposed to serve, as politicians instead cater to corporate interests. In the United States, this has been exacerbated by the Citizens United ruling, which unleashed a flood of corporate money into political campaigns, allowing wealthy elites to shape policy in their favour. Campaigns have only become more expensive as factions of the ruling class outspend each other, seeking to realise their own visions for the country, whilst ordinary citizens are left without a voice. The dominance of corporate money in politics serves as a modern extension of feudal power structures, where a select few control the future of the many.
The Power Threat Meaning Framework and the Working Class Experience
The PTMF offers a valuable lens through which to understand how systemic disinvestment and economic exploitation shape the lived experiences of the working class. Unlike traditional psychological models that focus on individual pathology, the PTMF views the struggles of people within the broader context of societal power imbalances. It helps explain how the working class, subject to economic exploitation and disenfranchisement, perceives these conditions as existential threats. These threats—whether they be the loss of housing, job insecurity, or lack of access to basic services—manifest as real dangers to their survival, leading to widespread feelings of precarity, stress, and anxiety. The PTMF reframes these mental health struggles as rational responses to unjust systems, not individual failings.
As these threats intensify, the working class interprets economic shifts through a lens of existential survival. Much like the Highlanders during the Clearances, they see their way of life being eroded by forces beyond their control. Displacement is no longer just about losing physical space but also about losing cultural and social identity, as communities are uprooted by gentrification and corporate monopolisation. Today’s working class is forced to confront the same reality the Gaels faced: the loss of their homes and the destruction of their communities, not through violent eviction but through financial mechanisms and policy decisions designed to benefit the wealthy elite.
A stark modern example of this displacement is the rise of institutional investors, such as private equity firms, buying up residential properties, particularly trailer parks. These companies view affordable housing as lucrative “profit centres,” buying out mobile home communities and raising rents, trapping residents—who often have few housing alternatives—in an unsustainable economic bind. Wealth is transferred from those with the least to those with the most, creating a system where the working class is systematically dispossessed of not only their homes but their ability to maintain stable, dignified lives. This process reflects the broader cultural and economic displacement seen throughout capitalist history, from the Clearances to today’s corporate-driven policies.
Systemic Disinvestment and Neoliberalism
Systemic disinvestment refers to the deliberate withdrawal of government investment in essential public services, a hallmark of neoliberal economic policy. Under this model, governments reduce funding for critical areas such as water, healthcare, and education, leaving private corporations to step in and fill the gap. However, rather than ensuring access and quality, these corporations often prioritise profit over public welfare. Neoliberal policies, which advocate for so-called “free markets,” deregulation, and privatisation, have allowed this process to unfold, fundamentally altering the relationship between people and the services they depend on. As the state retreats from its role in providing public goods, corporations take control, commodifying basic needs and further concentrating wealth at the top.
This trend can be traced back to the neoliberal economic agendas of leaders like Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Ruth Richardson in New Zealand. These leaders championed privatisation and deregulation, fundamentally reshaping the role of the state. Thatcher famously declared that “there is no such thing as society,” pushing for a dismantling of the public sector, whilst Reagan’s policies gutted social programs in favour of tax cuts for the wealthy. Meanwhile, the working class bore the brunt of these policies, facing increasing costs for services that had once been publicly provided. As public infrastructure crumbled, the ruling class amassed even more wealth, exemplified by the purchasing of extravagant yachts and beach homes while the working class struggled to afford basic necessities.
For the working class, the impact of systemic disinvestment has been devastating. As services like healthcare and education have been privatised, their costs have skyrocketed, and access has been restricted to those who can afford it. The deterioration of public infrastructure mirrors the devastation of earlier capitalist regimes, such as the Highland Clearances, where the working class was systematically dispossessed to benefit wealthy landowners. Just as the Clearances displaced entire communities in pursuit of profit, neoliberalism continues to displace the modern working class, leaving them vulnerable to the whims of corporate power and a financialised economy that no longer serves the public good.
Corporate Control and Environmental Devastation
Corporate feudalism extends its reach beyond mere economic exploitation, driving profound environmental degradation that often displaces working-class and marginalised communities. As large corporations seize control of natural resources—water, land, forests—they prioritise short-term profit over ecological sustainability, leading to crises like water shortages, widespread pollution, and climate change. The working class, particularly in underprivileged areas, bears the brunt of these environmental disasters. Corporations pollute rivers, exploit finite resources, and degrade ecosystems, forcing communities into precarious situations where their very survival is threatened. From water crises in Flint, Michigan, to massive wildfires driven by climate change, corporate practices not only devastate the environment but also uproot the lives of those least responsible for the damage.
The environmental destruction wrought by corporate interests has clear parallels with the Highland Clearances, where land was also exploited for economic gain, leading to both the dispossession of communities and the degradation of the landscape. During the Clearances, the land was cleared of people to make way for large-scale sheep farming, driven by the demand for wool in industrialising Britain. The Clearances were not only acts of human displacement but also profoundly altered the Highland ecosystem, destroying biodiversity and traditional ways of land management. Today, modern corporate practices, particularly in extractive industries like mining and fossil fuels, similarly degrade the environment, strip the land of its resources, and displace entire communities—often working-class ones—forcing them to become modern-day refugees within their own countries.
This displacement is now creating climate refugees in the Global North, as extreme weather events, sea-level rise, and droughts wreak havoc on communities that lack the resources to adapt or relocate. Working-class people in cities like New Orleans or coastal regions in the U.S. face floods, hurricanes, and wildfires, driven by corporate-led environmental destruction. Indigenous peoples, including the Gaels, have historically seen themselves as part of nature, viewing the land as something to be held in common for the common good, not owned or exploited for profit. The Gaels, as an Indigenous people, were ill-prepared for the ‘lawfare’ that the English imposed during the Clearances, in much the same way settler colonialism displaced Indigenous peoples across the globe, from North America to Australia. Everywhere settler colonialism went, it brought with it environmental destruction and a system of private ownership, alien to Indigenous ways of life. This ruling class, whether in the Clearances or today’s corporate boardrooms, operates with a mindset rooted in greed, turning the environment into a commodity and disregarding the long-term consequences for both people and the planet.
The Threat of Displacement in the Financialised Global North
In the financialised Global North, the working class faces a new wave of displacement driven by neoliberal economics and financialisation. This process, much like the Highland Clearances, systematically removes people from their homes and communities—not through direct eviction, but via mechanisms like gentrification, housing market speculation, and the commodification of basic services. Housing, once a basic need, has become a speculative asset for corporate investors, hedge funds, and real estate conglomerates, who treat homes as mere profit generators. The result is that working-class families are priced out of their own communities, forced into economic precarity as rents and home prices soar beyond reach (I have an 80 mile each way commute to my school for this very reason). This modern displacement mirrors the 18th-century Clearances, where people were pushed off the land to make way for sheep farming—today, they are displaced to make room for luxury developments and corporate profits.
Gentrification is one of the clearest examples of corporate feudalism at work in real estate. Corporate landlords and developers purchase property in urban areas, drive up prices, and market the housing to wealthier individuals, effectively pushing out long-time residents who can no longer afford to live there. This process not only strips working-class people of their homes but also erases their cultural and community identity. Just as the Highland Clearances destroyed Gaelic society, modern gentrification uproots working-class communities, leaving behind sterile, profit-driven developments. For those displaced, there is often no recourse; their once-affordable neighbourhoods are transformed into enclaves for the wealthy, out of reach for those who helped build them.
This displacement has created a new kind of serfdom in the Global North, where many now live in conditions of economic precarity, tethered to corporate landlords, healthcare systems, and employers. Access to housing, healthcare, and secure employment is increasingly controlled by corporate entities, with little room for the working class to negotiate better terms or escape the cycle of dependency. The neoliberal system adds an additional layer of control through the credit score, which functions like a digital fence that keeps people out of housing, jobs, and even basic services. Those with low scores are shut out of opportunities and left to navigate an increasingly hostile economic landscape, much like serfs in a feudal society who could not escape their lord’s control.
The system is further rigged by policies that prevent the working class from escaping debt. Whilst corporate elites can declare bankruptcy with relative ease (Orange Man’s multiple bankruptcies come to mind here), clearing their debts and starting anew, ordinary people face exile to financial obscurity. Bankruptcy is discouraged and comes with punitive consequences, leaving individuals in poverty for almost a decade as they are barred from loans, housing, and opportunities. One particularly cynical move was when the U.S. government, under pressure from financial elites, ensured that student loans could not be easily discharged in bankruptcy as part of the Affordable Care Act. This policy traps millions in lifelong debt for seeking a better future through education, further entrenching the cycle of economic precarity.
Most of the working class do not dream of riches—they dream of having enough to survive the increasingly hostile economic world they inhabit. They dream of being able to pay rent, afford healthcare, and put food on the table without worrying about being displaced by gentrification or crushed by debt. The financialisation of housing, education, and other basic services means that these simple dreams are slipping further out of reach, as corporate interests tighten their grip on everyday life. Just as the Clearances dispossessed the Gaels, so too are today’s financial elites systematically dispossessing the working class of the Global North, turning basic survival into an unreachable goal for many.
The Road To Serfdom as Irony
It is deeply ironic that Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom—a book that warned against the dangers of centralised planning and the erosion of personal freedoms—is often championed by the very people who espouse neoliberal policies. Hayek’s core argument was that government intervention in the economy would inevitably lead to tyranny, restricting individual freedoms and autonomy. Neoliberal thinkers and policymakers have long used this idea to justify their push for privatisation, deregulation, and the shrinking of the public sector. Yet, in practice, these very policies have led to a different kind of serfdom—one dominated not by the state, but by corporate power.
The neoliberal agenda, which was meant to liberate individuals from government control, has instead empowered corporations to take on the role of modern-day feudal lords. The working class now finds itself increasingly dependent on these entities, much like serfs in a feudal system were tied to their lords. Hayek feared the loss of freedom under centralised planning, but the corporate capture enabled by neoliberalism has produced similar results, with wealth and power concentrated in the hands of a few, whilst the majority struggle to maintain any semblance of autonomy.
What makes this irony even sharper is that the rhetoric of “freedom” has been co-opted to justify policies that, in reality, limit the freedoms of most people. The deregulated markets and privatised systems that neoliberals champion have led to economic dependence and a loss of control over one’s life for the vast majority, ensuring that only a select few benefit from this so-called freedom.
Final thoughts …
Throughout history, the working class has resisted capitalist forces, from the Gaelic resistance to the Highland Clearances to the modern struggles against globalisation and privatisation. The Gaels, despite being uprooted and dispossessed, fought back through rebellion, preservation of their culture, and migration, leaving a legacy of resilience that continues to inspire today. Similarly, in more recent times, movements such as the anti-globalisation protests of the 1990s and 2000s and today’s grassroots movements against corporate exploitation show that the working class can and does push back against capitalist encroachment. These resistances are part of a long tradition of people rising up to challenge systems of power that seek to marginalise them.
Critical Theory provides a framework for understanding these power structures, exposing the ways in which corporate feudalism and neoliberalism maintain control over the working class. By revealing the systemic nature of exploitation and dispossession, Critical Theory empowers collective action. Resistance is not just about individual survival but about solidarity, recognising the shared struggles of the working class and pushing back against hyper-individualism. Collective empowerment, as history has shown, can break the cycle of subservience to corporate power (which is why neoliberals like Florida’s far-right governor don’t want people to know about Critical Theory).
To envision a just future, we must focus on reclaiming public goods and resisting further privatisation. The fight is for housing, healthcare, education, and basic services to be returned to public hands, where the well-being of communities, rather than corporate profit, is the primary goal. By reimagining governance systems that prioritise the needs of the working class and marginalised groups, we can build a more equitable society, free from the grip of corporate feudalism.
As such, the working class must recognise that we are living through a modern-day form of feudalism and band together to resist it. Collectivism is the antidote to the hyper-individualism promoted by corporate elites, who rely on division to maintain control. By standing in solidarity and supporting one another, the working class can challenge corporate feudalism and build a future that truly serves the many, not the few. Just as communities resisted earlier forms of capitalist displacement, today's working class has the power to resist, reclaim, and create a just future.