Clara Mattei

The cruel math is that unemployment is not a problem for our system, but it's actually a solution for it.

Us having jobs means that the bargaining power of workers goes up and workers can be empowered to actually start problematizing why they have to go work for a wage that is so low and might start mobilizing for a different socioeconomic system, which is very bad for a capitalist economy.

In 2023, when unemployment was 3.4%, all the technocrats running central banks were freaking out.

And they were able, by increasing interest rates, to increase the unemployment rate to much higher.

And this is the point, is that increases in interest rates, which is fundamental austerity policies, don't necessarily work to actually cure inflation.

But what they do work for is to cure the rate of exploitation because, in fact, by dropping wages because of higher unemployment, there is more profit share over wage share, meaning that more value is extracted from workers.

The scramble for resources is not between the peanuts that those at the bottom get, but it's really the very, very, very rich people who not only accumulate millions a day, they also don't pay taxes because we know that capital, so long as it's invested, is not taxed.

Capital gains are really taxed to very low levels.

Corporate tax rates are constantly going down.

This is part of austerity.

So the problem here is really at the top, not at the bottom.

So the idea that people will do better if we kick out the immigrants is just a way to fool people in thinking that the problem are not those who benefit from a system that is based on war, suffering, and exploitation.

Thank you so much for having me, David.