Austerity reversed postwar labor income gains in both Italy and Britain by 1929
Evidence
Th e austerity counteroff ensive had an unequivocally uniform impact on both countries: it reversed both countries’ labor gains dramatically. Under Fascist austerity the gross wage share of Italian workers tumbled throughout the 1920s, reaching a new low in 1929 when it touched the level of 1913. Capital had gained back its dominant position. British labor experienced a similar fall: by 1929 workers had lost all of their postwar gains in share of national income. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1486
Categorization
- ADDENDUM: Quantifies the class-warfare outcome of austerity, directly supporting the reader’s core thesis of austerity as class weapon and the structural point that coercion restores capital’s dominant position.
- XREF: Directly feeds the reader’s overarching goal of understanding austerity as a class weapon; the 1929 reversal echoes the post-2008 wage-share stagnation literature. — connects to: Britain pioneered austerity in 1920 and Mussolini’s Italy followed in 1922 — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 820; Austere interwar policies raised measured rates of exploitation in both Britain and Italy — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1731; Fascist austerity dismantled postwar gains and re-separated economics from politics — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 193 (+10 more)
Broader Connections
- Austere interwar policies raised measured rates of exploitation in both Britain and Italy
#expands(0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1731 - Fascist austerity dismantled postwar gains and re-separated economics from politics
#expands(0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 193 - British monetary austerity after 1920 produced an unhealthy quasi-equilibrium for a full decade
#corroborates(0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1731 - Pound revaluation in the 1920s forced down wages through mass unemployment
#corroborates(0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1683 - Austerity originated after World War I as a counteroffensive against working-class unrest
#expands(0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 28 - Monetary austerity deliberately induced recession to discipline workers.
#corroborates(0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 154