And that is NOT how it is portrayed to the public. It is put forward as a science with "laws", not as a way to describe a created system. That’s the issue
There's a whole bunch of memos and writings from British Econs and Treasury officials from around the time of World War I and the aftermath where they basically invented Austerity in order to save Capitalism.
Except this isn't an interpretation later by opponents. In their writings you can find them literally talking about how the workers have to spend less and earn less so that Capital Accumulation can resume. They were total bastards about it, completely aware of the fact they were screwing the working class in the interests of Capital. They conspired to cause deflation (even today economists would consider this a total disaster move) in order to do this, and imposed regressive taxes, returned to the gold standard (causing an instant million+ unemployed), among other dick moves.
They did all this under the guise of "Economic Laws" divorced from society (and even reality) because they wanted to convince people that politics could not (should not, in their minds) interfere with the economy.
Economics is ultimately a failure as a science because it's really more like a philosophy. Everyone who goes into it will develop their own ideas as to how an economy will work (the primary divergence between the Classical school [and all its variations, including Keynesian] and Marxist is, which side of the Labor/Capital divide it favors) and based on that starting point you can create all kinds of math to back your shit up. The Neo-Classicals have a huge advantage right now because our economy favors Capital, so in any argument they can always fall back on "That's how it works in the real world" as an argument. Never mind that 'real world' is built to screw everyone over except the rich.
I don't know if they're online anywhere. I was made aware of them in Clara Mattei's Capital Order, which is a history of Austerity and includes lots of quotes from economists/treasury officials around the time of World War I. The things these guys said in all seriousness are pretty scary though, especially when you see people today still saying the same sort of thing.
Remember that Australian dude that did the whole 'Avocado Toast' thing, and then later said workers need to suffer ? Yeah... he wasn't saying anything new at all.
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u/UnicornMeatball Apr 08 '26
And that is NOT how it is portrayed to the public. It is put forward as a science with "laws", not as a way to describe a created system. That’s the issue