Austerity was framed by its architects as redemptive sacrifice required for recovery

Evidence

One fact remained beyond doubt. National governments, back then, knew perfectly well what they were doing and the damage they were planning to inflict on their own populations. In December 2011, Elsa Fornero, minister of labor and social policy in Monti’s government of technocrats, burst into tears when explaining what travails the new pension reform would impose on citizens. “Common effort” and “collective sacrifice” had become stock phrases for policy makers. They promised that the suffering would not be in vain, however: austerity was to guarantee a swift return to economic growth and to political credibility for European partners. There was a redemptive spirit to austerity—pain as a prerequisite to healing. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 113

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to ‘On Sacrifice: The Real Kind, with Corpses’ — the rhetoric of collective sacrifice as a redemptive structuring logic reappears here in economic policy. — connects to: Austerity was framed as a nation’s moral duty requiring harder work and savings — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 686; Eurozone austerity was framed as moral redemption for past fiscal sins — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 109; Austerity’s architects aimed to convert wartime sacrifice into a permanent universal norm — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 898 (+3 more)
• ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to the Sacrifice article — economic austerity as a secularized, administered sacrifice with an official priesthood administering bitter medicine.

Broader Connections

• Austerity’s architects aimed to convert wartime sacrifice into a permanent universal norm #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 898
• Austerity frames national crisis as requiring patriotic individual sacrifice in frugality and labor #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 803
• Austerity policy served creditor protection more than economic recovery #qualifies (0.72) — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 172