Austerity framed economic crisis as caused by governments and workers, not capital
Evidence
Resolution V explicitly states that capitalist production required the elimination of any aspirations of the working people for alternative organizations of production. Such aspirations could be thwarted through two measures: privatization and the control of labor. Th e two would ultimately guard against the fundamental culprits of economic crisis— the wrong actions of governments and of individuals (or better, of employees). — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 783
Categorization
- DEFINE: Pinpoints the diagnostic move at the heart of austerity: crisis blamed on two culprits, governments and employees, which prescribed privatization and labor control.
- XREF: connects to: The Eurozone crisis was wrongly blamed on sovereign fiscal profligacy — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 152; Ireland and Spain’s crises stemmed from bank real-estate lending, not fiscal profligacy — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 181; A tiny economy’s crisis was weaponized as a metaphor for austerity — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 202 (+21 more)
Broader Connections
- Austerity masquerades as apolitical science while bending workers to capital’s will
#expands(0.90) - Austerity frames national crisis as requiring patriotic individual sacrifice in frugality and labor
#expands(0.88) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 803 - Monetary austerity deliberately induced recession to discipline workers.
#corroborates(0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 154 - Austerity is an effective class-structure instrument, not an economic error
#complicates(0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 142 - Austerity is structural to capitalism, not a 1970s neoliberal aberration.
#qualifies(0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 162 - Capitalism’s 1918-20 crisis triggered austerity as a counterrevolutionary reaction.
#qualifies(0.72) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 115