The economy is not a machine but a set of exploitative social relations.

Evidence

My fundamental intuition is that there are no economic problems that are not inevitably also political problems. Contrary to what technocrats typically suggest, our economy is neither a force of nature nor an external object that we can manipulate as if it were a machine. On the contrary, the economy is us. Flesh-and-blood people. This means that “capital” as a “commodity,” as money to invest, as wealth expressed in gross domestic product, exists thanks to specific social relations, and in particular thanks to the fact that most people have no alternative but to sell their ability to work for a wage and inevitably be paid less than the value they produce. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 38

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the book’s core redefinition of the economy and capital as social relations rather than natural objects.
• XREF: connects to: Lukacs and Korsch traced economic phenomena back to human social relations. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 216; Capitalist production relations are reproduced socially and ideologically, not just economically; The economy is a constructed concept rather than a natural object. — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media: How Wall Street…, 538 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Capitalist production relations are reproduced socially and ideologically, not just economically #expands (0.85)
• Capitalism’s socialized labor is experienced by individuals as alien market relations #exemplifies (0.85) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 889
• Capitalist relations must be reproduced ideologically, not just economically #expands (0.85) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 628
• The economy is a constructed concept rather than a natural object. #corroborates (0.80) — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 538
• Market relations are real yet structurally unable to express the underlying social labor #exemplifies (0.80)
• Exploitation intensifies through systemic pressure, not greed #complicates (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 108