British austerity experts exported thrift propaganda to Brazil as colonial policy

Evidence

Niemeyer shared these beliefs. A decade later, he exported the British model to Brazil by advising its government “to encourage the formation of a voluntary committee of suitable persons for the organization and propaganda of thrift throughout the country” (Niemeyer 1931, 22). Britain’s experts were, however, under no illusion: aft er the war, the degree to which the system was being contested meant that workers were no longer inclined to abide by the behavioral dictates of the ruling classes. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 900

Categorization

• XREF: Direct forerunner of IMF conditionality imposing austerity on the Global South — a thread to modern Structural Adjustment Programs. — connects to: British abolition targeted Brazil to destroy its competing economy; Fascist Italy copied British sinking-fund methods to finance austerity — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1714; Austerity since colonial times has devastated the global periphery — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 288 (+3 more)
• SEED: Article angle: thrift propaganda as colonial export — how British moralizing about spending was transplanted to Brazil and later institutionalized in lender-imposed austerity.

Broader Connections

• Austerity since colonial times has devastated the global periphery #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 288
• Interwar experts sold austerity as objective science concealing true economic facts from the people #corroborates (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 744
• British abolition targeted Brazil to destroy its competing economy #corroborates (0.78)
• Austere interwar policies raised measured rates of exploitation in both Britain and Italy #corroborates (0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1731
• The crisis-as-government-fault narrative was engineered to justify austerity #corroborates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 950
• Fascist Italy copied British sinking-fund methods to finance austerity #exemplifies (0.72) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1714