Clara Mattei: Capitalism is not the natural order

Capitalism is not a natural and spontaneous order, but a system built through violence and maintained by people's dependence on the labor market. This is what economics professor Clara Mattei said in an interview with Channel 4 that attracted tens of thousands of comments online.

Mattei, author of the book “Escape from Capitalism“, questions the widespread understanding that poverty, unemployment, inflation and unaffordable housing are inevitable consequences of human nature or poor management.

“The economy is presented as a natural order“

According to Mattei, economic history is often presented as if capitalism arose independently. She points to the enclosure of common land in Britain as an example of a process in which ordinary people lost access to livelihoods and were forced to seek wage work.

“Economics as a discipline is profoundly ahistorical — purposefully designed to make you think it is a natural, spontaneous order. The reality is that if you look at history, our economic system was born through violence,“ says Mattei.

She argues that this dependency is not an exception but a foundation of the system. When people do not have independent access to land, housing or other means of livelihood, they are forced to accept the conditions of the labor market.

Austerity as a tool of dependency

Mattei also challenges the explanation that austerity is merely a painful but necessary response to high indebtedness. She says that cuts to social services make people more dependent on any available job, and unemployment limits their ability to demand higher wages and better conditions.

“Austerity keeps us in a subordinate position. It makes us need to work any job to pay our bills,“ says the economist.

She applies the same logic to anti-inflation policies. According to her, economic models often present workers and high wages as the cause of price increases, and higher interest rates as a neutral solution. Mattei argues that these measures can increase unemployment and weaken the position of employees.

Inequality and support for the system

The conversation cited data showing that 12 people own more wealth than the poorest 4 billion people in the world. Other figures include 157 British billionaires with wealth equivalent to 22% of Britain's gross domestic product, up from 5% in 1990, and the claim that one in three British children lives in poverty.

Mattei explains why people affected by inequality sometimes defend the system itself using the Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci's concept of "hegemony". She says economic theories suggest that the rich have achieved their situation through more work and rationality, while poverty is presented as a personal failure.

“People have internalized it so deeply that the only explanation for their dehumanizing lives is to blame those who are even weaker than them, because they don't see who is really winning,“ says Mattei.

What alternative does she propose?

Mattei clarifies that she is not proposing a return to a Soviet model of state control. She speaks of local participation, democratic allocation of resources, and solutions focused on immediate material needs.

She cites participatory budgeting, which emerged in Brazil in the 1980s, as an example. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, she runs the Forum for Real Economic Emancipation, which works on issues such as food sovereignty and local wealth taxation.

When asked what she would change in one move, Mattei puts ending physical violence and ensuring food security first. It is this combination of a critique of capitalism and a call for concrete local action that is among the reasons the interview resonated so strongly with viewers.

Sources: thedailybritain.co.uk, tapesearch.com