It’s been enjoyable to see the concept of a ‘per capita recession’ trotted out. A slow realisation that the…

It’s been enjoyable to see the concept of a ‘per capita recession’ trotted out. A slow realisation that the statistical indicators we call ‘the economy’ often bear little relationship to our actual lives. It reveals what’s really in play here. /1 https://t.co/WaF4oGRegk

The economy never was about ordinary people. It was about taking a set of indicators that favour the existing status quo, and reifying them into a thing, then used as a substitute for society. The ‘cost of living crisis’ reveals the same shift. /2 https://t.co/FbQbcRuunZ

Ordinary people were only ever granted access to the society we call an economy by taking out vast amounts of personal debt. It’s the crippling weight of that debt, accelerated by increasing interest rates, that’s revealed how the shift works. /3 https://t.co/VPOkVoqc2w

As soon as that debt became both unavailable and unpayable, ordinary people discovered their true place in our society. Nowhere. They’re living in cars, and/or eating breakfast cereal 3 times a day. /4 https://t.co/eU7nDDzNni

This isn’t ‘capitalism’ or any of the other popular baddies we evoke because it makes us feel better. It’s a social transformation, of a community-focused society, into a market-focused society. Markets are individuals, not communities. /5

Individuals kept in play in this new society only by debt. Debt funded to fuel the social status hierarchies which are most human behaviour. The best house, the best car, in the best suburb, using the best phone and wearing the best watch, etc. /6

The economy is a direct threat to all societies, because its core tenets are ruthlessly anti-social. It’s a social invention, not an economic one, barely a century or so old. /end Graph from: https://t.co/hJgyauMQUl