If there's one book you need to read to get a grasp on how contemporary capitalism and austerity undermines the many and only benefits the few, it's this one book. It's dense but it is wildly interesting. It parallels how technology, as the largest disruption since the industrial revolution, has completely changed how we perceive the world and so to the benefit of open market capitalism.
In short, how the Information Age makes the world more incomprehensible

As the world around us increases in technological complexity, our understanding of it diminishes. Underlying this trend is a single idea: the belief that our existence is understandable through computation, and more data is enough to help us build a better world.

In reality, we are lost in a sea of information, increasingly divided by fundamentalism, simplistic narratives, conspiracy theories, and post-factual politics. Meanwhile, those in power use our lack of understanding to further their own interests. Despite the apparent accessibility of information, we’re living in a new Dark Age.

From rogue financial systems to shopping algorithms, from artificial intelligence to state secrecy, we no longer understand how our world is governed or presented to us. The media is filled with unverifiable speculation, much of it generated by anonymous software, while companies dominate their employees through surveillance and the threat of automation.

In his brilliant new work, leading artist and writer James Bridle surveys the history of art, technology, and information systems, and reveals the dark clouds that gather over our dreams of the digital sublime.

In this video James Bridle explains some of the arguments from New Dark Age