Regressive taxation and spending cuts both function to secure market dependence

Evidence

You may find these scenarios paradoxical or even a reflection of the failure of our economic policies. I don’t blame you. What I want to stress, however, is that these results are not a failure for the logic of our economic system. The result of regressive taxation is the same as that of cuts to social spending: the confiscation of the working peoples’ resources increases their economic vulnerability, their precariousness, and dependence on the market. These are definitely problems for us but not for the system, because securing market dependence means securing the foundations of the capital order. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 150

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The ‘problems for us but not for the system’ formulation — the core inversion that makes the whole argument cohere. Paradigmatic of the book’s thesis.
• XREF: Restates and caps the mechanism from [145]; this is the chapter’s thesis sentence cluster. — connects to: Regressive taxation and spending cuts serve the same class-confiscating function — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 150; Generalised market dependence forces producers to cut costs and accumulate — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 20