Poverty is inherent to capitalism even in its richest, most developed forms.

Evidence

Poverty cannot be passed off as a temporary condition of people living in the Global South (representing an astonishing seven billion out of the eight billion inhabitants of the planet) whose lot will soon improve thanks to economic growth and development. On the contrary, poverty is inherent to the very nature of capitalist society even in its most developed form. Even in the richest country in the world, the United States, during its golden post–World War II epoch, poverty was pervasive. In 1962, it plagued 20 percent of American families (around 35 million individuals) and almost half of the nonwhite population. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 88

Categorization

• XREF: Core polemical claim for the reader’s austerity/neoliberalism project — that poverty is constitutive, not residual. — connects to: Poverty is inherent to developed capitalism, not a Global South condition — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 88; Capitalism’s own productive development raised worker living standards and defused revolutionary hunger — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 662; Paycheck dependence and unaffordable care pervade even rich developed economies — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 87 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Poverty is inherent to developed capitalism, not a Global South condition #corroborates (1.00) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 88
• Capitalism’s own productive development raised worker living standards and defused revolutionary hunger #contradicts (0.90) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 662
• Paycheck dependence and unaffordable care pervade even rich developed economies #exemplifies (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 87
• Capitalism’s incurable flaw is its inability to provide for the world’s majority #expands (0.85) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 594