Escape from capitalism

Escape from capitalism An intervention

Clara E. Mattei

Book - 2026

"Capitalism isn't inevitable, isn't scientific, and isn't natural-it's a relatively young system that can be replaced. In this radical rethinking of economics, Clara Mattei argues that enduring problems such as poverty, unemployment, and inflation are not bugs in the economy but core features. They are justified with pseudoscientific models, fabrications built to support a capitalist economy that unfairly rewards people with the most resources. The tools of economic experts-budget cuts, interest rate hikes, and regressive taxes-never work as promised. Central bankers raise interest rates knowing this will cause a recession. The government slashes IRS jobs, which ends up costing trillions. Textbooks teach that unempl...oyment must rise to fix inflation. But this model creates conditions that force people to accept crummy jobs and low pay. In the wake of World War I, when the world's economy was in turmoil, economics was elevated to a scientific discipline, legitimized through mathematical formulas and new economic institutions considered too sophisticated for the average person to understand. Today's economic institutions, from the Fed to the IMF, wield immense power over monetary policy yet are shielded from democratic scrutiny. Why should we accept a system that delegates important decisions to institutions in which we have no say? All the major problems that ail us-from a healthcare system that prioritizes profits over wellbeing to the rise of ultranationalism-are rooted in an economic system that fails to serve the common good. In this revelatory manifesto, Mattei sets out a revolutionary vision that may one day allow us to achieve true economic freedom . . . and escape from capitalism"-- Provided by publisher.

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2nd Floor New Shelf 330.122/Mattei (NEW SHELF) Due Apr 11, 2026
Subjects
Capitalism.
Equality > Economic aspects.
Economics.
economics.
POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Capitalism.
POLITICAL SCIENCE / Labor & Industrial Relations.
Published
New York : Simon & Schuster 2026.
Language
English
Main Author
Clara E. Mattei (author)
Edition
First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition
Physical Description
212 pages ; 22 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781668085141
9781668085158
  • The Invisible Order
  • The Logic of Austerity
  • The Cruel Math of Unemployment
  • The West Over the Rest
  • Democracy Is Anti-Capitalism
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Index.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

"The decisions of economic institutions, from the Fed to the Treasury in the US to the International Monetary Fund, are not neutral, scientific, or necessarily moral. They have long failed to serve the common good," asserts economist Mattei (The Capital Order) in this precise and cutting condemnation of capitalism. The aim of her "intervention" is to convince readers that capitalism is not the only, best, or most "natural" path forward for humanity--that it is in fact a highly "political" system propped up to serve particular elite interests. Mattei concisely and elegantly runs through common claims in capitalism's favor--the notion that it is the only viable economic system, that it promotes political and financial freedom, that it leads to social progress--and presents counterexamples, among them the international aid that has disproportionately flowed to and propped up the modern state of Israel and the Federal Reserve's efforts to increase unemployment for the "health" of the economic system. While some readers may wish for more time spent on the promised methods for "escape from capitalism"--an intriguing but brief chapter spotlights economic decisions made by social democratic leaders in countries like Brazil and Mexico as a model for how to disconnect from capitalism's agenda--it's nevertheless a persuasive takedown. Readers will come away ready for change. (Jan.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

In her new work, economist Mattei (Univ. of Tulsa), author of the celebrated 2022 volume The Capital Order, takes a hard look at capitalism and posits that it is a young political-economic system, is not inevitable, and should be replaced with a more equitable system. She builds her case by ticking off a list of the ways capitalism benefits those few owners of capital at the expense of the far greater number of workers forced to sell their labor for meager wages to survive. Tools of control, such as austerity measures, rising interest rates, regressive taxes, and cuts to the social safety net, keep the working population suppressed and desperate enough to take bad jobs for low pay. Economic institutions such as the Federal Reserve and the International Monetary Fund exert control without ever having been chosen by voters. In the chaos that followed World War I, economics came to be treated as a scientific discipline governed by arcane mathematical formulas that concealed capitalism's exploitative nature from workers. Mattei now directs the Forum for Real Economic Emancipation to study capitalism and its alternatives. VERDICT As people struggle with the volatility and inequities of capitalism, this relevant book will spark conversation.--Caren Nichter

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A clearly explained case for scrapping entrenched capitalism for a fairer distribution of the pot. Mattei, an Italian economist who teaches at the University of Tulsa, offers a resounding proposition: "It is time to demand an economic system that does not flourish at the expense of humanity." The author ofThe Capital Order (2022) writes that there's a great deal in the "capital order" that needs to be thrown out, overhauled, remade, and rethought in order to arrive at a system that critics are likely to brand, immediately, as socialist. They wouldn't be far off the mark, but hers is a humanistic socialism, one that insists on meaningful work and just compensation rather than the capitalist model on which profitability hinges on paying the lowest possible wages to the least resistant workforce. Against the reigning dogma that capitalism brings about free markets and therefore freedom, Mattei advances the "stark truth" that capitalism and democracy are incompatible: Democracy requires that workers have agency, something the capital order is loath to grant. Arguing further from the insight that "there are no economic problems that are not inevitably also political problems," the author argues that a step forward to creating true economic democracy is a political project that begins with building communities of resistance, one such being an organization founded in Mississippi in which neighbors exchange goods "without the intermediation of money." Along the way, Mattei offers a crystal-clear explanation of how inflation relates with unemployment, with capitalists fearing full employment because, in tight labor markets, workers have a greater voice lest they move on elsewhere (as so many did in the "Great Resignation" during the Covid-19 pandemic); inflation rises because prices do, a phenomenon that, in her view, moves our focus from "what is really at stake"--namely, profit above all else--to the specter of having to pay more for eggs. A forceful argument for an economic system that does not require the many to fill the pockets of the few. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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