Capitalism is a trap - and you can't get out | Clara Mattei interview

Ava sits down with economist Clara Mattei to explore a bold and unsettling idea: capitalism isn’t failing - it’s functioning exactly as intended.

Drawing from her book Escape from Capitalism, Mattei dismantles the myth of the free market, explaining how what appears to be freedom and choice is actually a system of control. If everything we need to survive is commodified, we must sell our labour to live. That dependency, she argues, creates a hierarchy where workers produce more value than they receive, and where policy is structured to protect that imbalance.

Mattei speaks strongly on austerity, arguing that it is essential to maintaining capitalist power. By making life more precarious, keeping people indebted, overworked, and insecure, austerity limits our ability to organise and imagine alternatives. Even institutions that claim neutrality, like central banks, play a political role in sustaining this order.

Mattei argues that many so-called progressive solutions, as well as progressives themselves, remain trapped within the logic of profit, productivity, and growth - leaving the underlying power structures untouched.

Touching on inequality, militarism, social division, democratic agency and its erosion, Mattei debunks the economic narratives that shape what we believe is possible. Most importantly, she asks: if capitalism depends on political enforcement, what would it mean to withdraw our consent?

Check out the Forum for Real Economic Emancipation here

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