Economic theory reinforced the Italian austerity economists’ classist worldview

Evidence

Ricci joined, too: “Th e darlings [beniamini] of economic policy during the war and aft er have been the workers of the great cities. In other words, the savers were punished, and the squanderers rewarded” (Ricci 1921, 450). Th e economist architects of Italian austerity distrusted, and perhaps despised, the working classes for their ineptitude in the vital action of economic growth: saving. While it is impossible to ascertain whether or not pure economics was the primary source of the economists’ classist convictions, it is safe to assert that pure economics at least reinforced their classism. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1162

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: how abstract economic theory about saving and thrift furnished moral legitimation for class contempt — the scientific veneer that made austerity feel like natural law rather than class warfare.
• XREF: Ties to the technocratic ethos in the next passages — experts claimed their policies were ‘simply true’ and apolitical. — connects to: The ECB justified austerity through rational-expectations Ricardian consumer theory — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 174; Liberal economists endorsed Mussolini to enforce austerity on Italy’s workers — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 656; Italian economists framed public employment as destroying the work ethic — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1241 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Economists depoliticized austerity by presenting class-based coercion as neutral expertise. #corroborates (0.88) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1569
• Italian austerity economists blamed wartime gains for working-class moral decline #exemplifies (0.82) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1142
• Austerity is an effective class-structure instrument, not an economic error #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 142
• Neoclassical economics replaced class analysis with individualistic merit narratives #corroborates (0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 30
• Austerity needed economic theory to justify unpopular cutbacks after World War I #expands (0.72) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 874