Fiscal and monetary austerity jointly transfer capital accumulation costs onto working classes

Evidence

Not only did the two mutually reinforce one another, they also stood for the same purpose. Fiscal and monetary austerity favored wealthy savers while the rest of society was forced to consume less via diminution of government resources, payment of taxes, and lower wages. Th e dual operation of fi scal and monetary austerity put the burden of capital accumulation on the working classes to ultimately reestablish the divide between the economic and the political and protect private property and wage relations. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 774

Categorization

• DEFINE: Articulates the core definition of austerity as a class weapon: dual fiscal-monetary policy as wealth transfer mechanism.
• ADDENDUM: Directly supports the reader’s framing of austerity as a class weapon central to their reading purpose.
• XREF: connects to: Austerity ignores the externality costs of top-income decisions on lower-income people — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 62; Inflation acts as a class-specific tax benefiting debtors over creditors — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 46; Alesina’s econometrics framed expenditure cuts as growth-promoting and the new policy norm — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 462 (+16 more)

Broader Connections

• Monetary austerity deliberately induced recession to discipline workers. #exemplifies (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 154
• Austerity is state intervention transferring resources from the many to the few #qualifies (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 195
• Three metrics—wage share, exploitation rate, profit rate—measure austerity’s class effects #expands (0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1477