<p>Suzi speaks with political economist Clara Mattei about her new book, <a href="https://www.claramattei.com/books/escape-from-capitalism" rel="nofollow"><em>Escape from Capitalism</em></a>. The title is provocative: What does it mean to escape capitalism? Not reform it, regulate it, or make it kinder, but escape it altogether?</p> <p>Mattei argues that capitalism is not a system gone wrong but one working exactly as intended. Her core claim is that austerity is not a policy mistake or ideological excess, it is structurally necessary. It is how capitalism reproduces itself: maintaining unemployment, disciplining labor, and foreclosing challenges before they can take shape.</p> <p>Drawing on both historical analysis and present-day realities, Mattei shows how even hard-won social democratic gains are temporary — rolled back as soon as they threaten profits. From post–World War I Europe to today’s neoliberal order and the resurgence of right-wing authoritarianism, austerity remains the system’s core logic. As Mattei puts it: Unemployment isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. And anti-austerity politics already point beyond capitalism itself.</p> <p>In this wide-ranging conversation, Mattei and Weissman unpack the “capital order,” the role of the state in enforcing it, and what it would actually mean to break free.</p> <p><em>Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman</em> features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.</p>