Austerity directly reversed wartime gains in workers’ wages and bargaining power

Evidence

In both measures, Italy and Britain saw increasing exploitation across the 1920s. Mapping this against political events, the conclusions about austerity’s eff ects on workers become clear: exploitation plummeted during the “red years” of 1918– 1920, as nominal daily wages of workers quadrupled (Britain) or even quintupled (Italy) compared to the prewar years. Th is trend changed immediately with the introduction of austerity. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 80

Categorization

• XREF: Links Italy and Britain’s interwar labor-exploitation reversal to later wage-suppression debates in Taylor and Ömer’s US data. — connects to: Monetary austerity crushed British trade and union power through unemployment — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 414; Austerity was designed to reverse workers’ revolutionary wartime and postwar gains — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 654; Austerity reversed postwar labor income gains in both Italy and Britain by 1929 — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1486 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Austerity reversed postwar labor income gains in both Italy and Britain by 1929 #corroborates (0.95) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1486
• Austerity structurally dismantled the workers’ movement and its economic alternatives #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 654
• Austerity originated after World War I as a counteroffensive against working-class unrest #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 28
• Monetary austerity deliberately aimed to rein in workers’ purchasing power #corroborates (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 757
• Monetary austerity deliberately induced recession to discipline workers. #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 154
• Wartime labor-mobility restrictions functioned as wage caps against workers’ enhanced bargaining power. #complicates (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 176
• Workers’ wartime indispensability empowered postwar demands to transform the economic system #corroborates (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 174