Market discipline masks the coercion that forces most people to sell their labor

Evidence

In this view, an economy is “objective” because it is disciplined by the laws of markets, including the laws of supply and demand. In this objective realm, economic coercion is concealed because it acquires such an impersonal form: the majority of us are forced to sell ourselves on the labor market in order to survive in a society where, without money, we cannot obtain food or housing. In a capitalist society, people depend on the market. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 98

Categorization

• XREF: The concealed-coercion framing of labor markets anticipates how austerity will later weaponize this dependency to discipline workers. — connects to: Depoliticized labor markets discipline workers through the threat of unemployment and lower wages — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 796; Political freedom is impossible when economic dependence forces people to sell their labor — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 533; Market ideology conceals exploitation by making exchange stand in for production (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Depoliticized labor markets discipline workers through the threat of unemployment and lower wages #expands (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 796
• Capitalism’s coercion is impersonal market dependence rather than personal domination. #expands (0.88) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 77
• Capitalism’s coercion is impersonal, operating through economic need rather than direct command #expands (0.88) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 77
• Market ideology conceals exploitation by making exchange stand in for production #expands (0.85)
• Even free labor under capitalism is subject to economic compulsion to sell labor-power. #exemplifies (0.85) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 599
• Political freedom is impossible when economic dependence forces people to sell their labor #expands (0.82) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 533
• Ownership asymmetry forces non-owners to sell labour and yield surplus value #expands (0.82) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 793
• Financialization functions as a disciplinary mechanism to exploit labor and displace capitalist contradictions #exemplifies (0.75) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 58