While regressive taxation imposes thrift on the majority and exempts the saverinvestor minority, budget cuts indirectly do the same: public resources are diverted from the many to the saverinvestor few, in that budget cuts come with the stated priority of paying back the debt that rests in the hands of national or international creditors. Similarly, monetary austerity, meaning monetary revaluation policies (such as an increase in interest rates and reduction in money supply) directly protect creditors and increase the value of their savings. Meanwhile organized labor has its hands tied, since having less money in circulation depresses the economy and diminishes the bargaining power of the working class. Finally, industrial austerity, which takes the form of authoritarian industrial policies (layoff s of public employees, wage reductions, unionand strikebusting, etc.), further protects vertical wage relations between owners and workers, fostering wage repression in favor of the higher profi t of the few.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 46