Novara Media Downstream: The Middle Class Is Collapsing. Fascism Could Be Next w/ Clara Mattei
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Mar 16, 2026 Clara Mattei, economist and author focused on austerity, fascism and political economy. She traces how deliberate austerity policies reshape class structure and weaken democratic control. The conversation covers the political construction of capitalism, the collapse of the middle class into wage dependence, and experiments in democratic economic alternatives.
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Capitalism Is A State Enforced Order
- Capitalism is a political construction reliant on wage labor and state enforcement rather than a natural market order.
- Clara Mattei cites Oxfam data: 12 people own more than the bottom 50% (4 billion) while half the world lives on $6.85/day, showing state-enabled extreme inequality.
Austerity Creates Market Dependence
- Austerity increases market dependence and compresses wages, which preserves capitalist power by shrinking alternatives to wage labor.
- Mattei links austerity tools: cuts to social spending, regressive taxation, privatization and interest-rate hikes that raise unemployment.
Middle Class Proletarianization Is Happening Now
- The so-called middle class is largely wage-dependent and therefore part of the working class facing proletarianization.
- Mattei argues automation and austerity shrink middle-income job security, turning middle strata into precarious wage laborers.
