J.A. Schumpeter (desde su biografía - 22)

p.356

“In pre-capitalist times, he writes, no economic achievement, by itself, could advance anyone into the living standards of the ruling class. But when capitalism began to spread, persons of “supernormal ability and ambition” could now reach a much higher standard of living, provided they would pursue business careers. Yet business success did not confer the charisma that had attached to feudal lords and others leaders of earlier times: “no flourishing of swords about it, not much physical prowess, no chance to gallop the armored horse into the enemy.”

As time passed, however, the economic juggernaut of capitalism began to subvert most of the underpinnings of feudal society –knightly service, the craft guild, the village, the manor. In place of the old webs of reciprocal personal responsibilities –lord and knight, landowner and peasant, patron and artisan- capitalism substituted impersonal efficiency and opportunity. People were no longer part of an organic social system. They could achieve material gains, but they also became “free to make a mess of their lives.” They now had sufficient “individualist rope” to hang themselves.”