... understanding the opposition between big capital (feudal lords) and small enterpreneurs (capitalist-wannabe proletariat), and how big capital exploits and seduces small enterpreneurs with a dream that's about as unachievable for them as it is for any other members of the worker class, was an insight that I was missing before, and this way of looking at big capital as a chimera of feudal lords with the prototypical top-hatted capitalists helped me see and understand some historical and economic processes that seemed a little off to be before it. now, it's clear to me that the literature covers that and understand that, much better than I do, so to me in the end it was sort of a matter of nomenclature, of rearranging my mental symbols to match the language that others use, while I phase out my own old even more limited understandings and conceptual framework. but what if this notion turns out to be useful to others? highlighting the rent-seeking behaviors that varoufakis drew my attention to, that have been present since the inception of capitalism, at first as something that scholars were very critical to, but that later came to be perceived as part of capitalism, seems far more of a break and fundamental corruption of capitalism than ML literature seems to give it credit for, even if only as an idealized mental model. disagree as you wish, but it works for me; I'll probably have to write a book about it some day ;-)