Economists blamed working-class morality for postwar inflation.

Evidence

From the height of their privilege, economic experts discussed inflation as a matter of imbalance between demand and supply in the economy, ultimately boiling down to peoples’ moral deficiency. Having fought for and obtained higher wages, workers were unable to control themselves and indulged in extravagant behavior, evidenced by “conspicuous increases in unnecessary consumption of alcoholic beverages, sweets, chocolate, and biscuits,” as economics professor Luigi Einaudi sneered. With similar disdain, Maffeo Pantaleoni, pioneer of today’s mainstream economics, blamed inflation on workers who “live like pigs in their homes in order to waste the greatest part of their income in wine at the tavern.” — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 13

Categorization

• SHARE: The ‘live like pigs’ quote from Pantaleoni, pioneer of mainstream economics, is a biting anecdote for an economics-minded friend.
• SEED: Angle: how ‘immorality of the poor’ rhetoric gets recast in scientific language across eras — from 1920s wine-drinking to today’s ‘wage-push’ inflation narratives.
• XREF: connects to: Economists have blamed workers for inflation for over a century — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 15; Postwar class resentment infected economic theory and now drives welfare stigma — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 227; Italian austerity economists blamed wartime gains for working-class moral decline — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1142 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Economists have blamed workers for inflation for over a century #expands (0.92) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 15
• Italian austerity economists blamed wartime gains for working-class moral decline #exemplifies (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1142
• Postwar class resentment infected economic theory and now drives welfare stigma #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 227
• Elite economists blamed poverty on the supposed deficiencies of the poor themselves #expands (0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 226
• Monetary inflation was cast as merely a symptom of governmental and worker misbehavior #expands (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 783