It is a trope of twentiethand twentyfi rstcentury life that governments faced with fi nancial shortfalls look fi rst to the services they provide their citizens when making cuts. Instances like these are innumerable and span every country in the world. When this happens, they produce highly predictable, uniformly devastating eff ects on societies. Call it the austerity eff ect: the inevitable public suff ering that ensues when nations and states cut public benefi ts in the name of economic solvency and private industry. While austerity policies may not be identifi ed by name, they underscore the most common tropes of contemporary politics: budget cuts (especially in welfare expenditures such as public education, health care, housing, and unemployment benefi ts), regressive taxation, defl ation, privatization, wage repression, and employment deregulation. Taken together, this suite of policies entrenches existing wealth and the primacy of the private sector, both of which tend to be held up as economic keys that will guide nations to better days.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 21