The Phillips curve disguises a profits-versus-unemployment trade-off as an inflation-versus-unemployment one.

Evidence

The Phillips curve packages the unpalatable trade-off between profits and unemployment into the more palatable one between inflation and unemployment. This seemingly innocuous choice of variables achieves important wins for the system. By hiding what is really at stake—the protection of profits—it focuses our attention on inflation. We are all led to believe that economists are primarily concerned with combating inflation, a phenomenon that especially hurts those with less purchasing power. So we easily overlook the violent reality of our economy: without unemployment there is no smooth investment. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 274

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Core of Mattei’s argument: reframing the variable choice launders class discipline into neutral macroeconomics.
• XREF: Directly builds the ‘invisible order’ thesis — capitalism needs high unemployment to appear as natural fact rather than political choice. — connects to: The Phillips curve reframes a conflict over profits as one about inflation — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 274