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workers were organized, had suffrage rights, and, by 1919, were making demands on employers and the state for a revision of the social contract. This threat to the prerogatives of capital, Mattei argues, provoked a reaction in the form of a comprehensive set of state-imposed austerity policies aimed at pounding the working class into a state of docility. In addition to repelling the existential menace of working-class militancy, these policies would establish lasting mechanisms for channeling income and wealth upward from workers to capitalists.
✏️ And here’s where austerity is birthed (and used every single time).
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When people demand things, government has a powerful tool to wield.. a hammer to pound them back into subservience.
Austerity scales back social nets, destabilizes the foundation of having your basic needs met, and then gives the capitalists the reins to run things, lower wages, force work, and make crazy profit.
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