The capitalist mode of destruction

Economic Insecurity and Social Stability: An Exploration of One of Capitalism’s Vicious Cycles

“…Aggravating the job insecurity facing workers are capitalism’s regular economic crises (Amott and Matthaei, 1991: 317; Marx and Engels, 1978: 478; Panayotakis, 2021: 114). On the one hand, as long-standing anti-austerity struggles around the world demonstrate, such crises lead to popular discontent and at times intense class struggle over who will bear the cost of the economic restructuring these crises often trigger (Graeber, 2013; Mason, 2012; Panayotakis, 2011: 92 and 134; Sitrin and Azzelini, 2014).…”

“…Economic crises force working people to compete for an often limited number of jobs. Labor market competition has often divided workers, with periods of economic crisis fueling working-class racism, sexism, and xenophobia, as white, male and/or native workers seek to enhance their chances of employment by targeting people of color, women, and immigrants (Amott and Matthaei, 1991: 77 and 318; Ghosh, 2011: 25; Panayotakis, 2021: 115). Indeed, one result of the 2008 global economic crisis, as well as the austerity policies that accompanied it, was the rise and mainstreaming of the xenophobic, racist, and, at times, fascist views of the far right in various parts of the world (Baier, 2016: 53; Berezin, 2013: 239; Hildebrandt, 2015: 31; Panayotakis, 2013a: 20–21; Prezioso, 2015: 74–75).…”

“…Facilitating the adoption and expansion of welfare states was the 1917 Russian revolution. A changing “context of [domestic] worker militancy and the socialist alternative” (Mishra 1996: 326) seemingly embodied at the time by the Soviet Union created enough political insecurity among the ranks of the capitalist class to ensure its tolerance (for a time) of more expansive welfare systems (Bagchi, 2005: 119; Desai, 2013: 53; Panayotakis, 2021: 130; Thompson, 2011: 138). Conversely, the convergence of the end of the Cold War with “[t]he decline of the workers’ movement, and of the left more generally” (Mishra 1996: 327) has in recent decades reduced the perceived necessity of such concessions.…”

“…The erosion of the welfare state after the end of the Cold War also reveals the precariousness of any working-class gains within capitalism (Hahnel, 2002: 279; Panayotakis, 2021: 123; Wolff, 2012: 33–37). While aspects of the welfare state have in the past benefited capital, notably by stabilizing the economy and boosting demand, the welfare state also implies costs for capital, whose control over labor will suffer the less “workers depend for their welfare .…”

“…The rising tide of economic insecurity in the United States and abroad is increasingly receiving the attention of sociologists, economists and political scientists (Hacker, 2019; Kolko, 2000: 280–282; Levine, 2015: 210; Panayotakis, 2021: 94; Stiglitz, 2001: xiv). Running parallel to growing economic inequality (Albo and Evans, 2010: 291–292; Hacker, 2019: 10 and 15–16; Jackson, 2017: 6; Schaefer, 2013: 180–184), rising insecurity has not just affected historically underprivileged groups, such as women and people of color.…”