Internalized capitalist values make American workers blame themselves for precarity.

Evidence

Capitalism’s ubiquity today can make criticizing or even observing capitalism seem quaint. Aft er all, we have internalized its teachings to the point that our values and beliefs are largely aligned with those that are functional to capital accumulation. It is all so embedded that today a majority of American workers can live paycheck to paycheck with little to no social insurance and still largely accept that their position is one they deserve; the country’s wealthy, meanwhile, benefi t from a seeming national allergy to any form of even mild tax reform that would shift more tax burden to the wealthy. Th e current landscape is quite diff erent from the one technocrats were confronting in 1919, but the two are most certainly connected. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 63

Categorization

• SEED: Angles for an essay connecting the 1920s austerity mindset to present-day paycheck-to-paycheck acceptance of precarity.
• ADDENDUM: Supports and extends the modern-resonance theme that would pair with Mattei’s own book-level argument.
• XREF: connects to: Workers internalize capitalist values and accept precarity as deserved — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 63; Working men internalize self-blame for their own class position.; Capitalism shifts blame between individuals and structure to deflect accountability — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 145 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Workers internalize capitalist values and accept precarity as deserved #corroborates (0.95) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 63
• Working men internalize self-blame for their own class position. #corroborates (0.85)
• Capitalism shifts blame between individuals and structure to deflect accountability #expands (0.85) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 145
• Meritocratic framing blames workers for failing to profit from hope labor. #corroborates (0.80) — Brooke Erin Duffy, (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love, 764
• Late capitalist life forces individuals to identify with the power that oppresses them #expands (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 116
• The inner self is colonized by capitalist productivity norms #expands (0.75) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 82