Austerity was, and remains, a shrewd endeavor. By critically studying its origins and architects, we see again and again that austerity was conceived, and succeeded, as a counteroff ensive: it functions to preserve the primacy and indisputability of capitalism in times when capitalism is under political threat. And it does so by introducing structures— policies— that shift resources from the working majority to the saver/ investor minority. Th e immediate distributional impacts have the important longterm function of disempowering the majority and thus reinforcing the general acceptance of the pillars of capital accumulation: private ownership of the means of production and wage relations. You get what the boss gives you.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 1467