Neoliberals say that inflation is directly caused by high social spending and good wages, and that working-class people must sacrifice these to bring prices down. But there are other causes of inflation, and solutions to it that don’t pit us against ourselves.

Defining inflation is easy. Inflation is when prices go up. But explaining what causes inflation is incredibly hard. The gulf between the simplicity of its definition and the complexity of its causes is what allows neoliberals like Manchin to pin inflation on government spending — in essence, using the specter of higher consumer prices to enforce austerity and protect accumulated wealth at the working class’s expense.

The basic idea put forward by neoliberals is that working-class people get scraps from their employers or the government for their own good, and that demanding anything more will just end up hurting them in the long run. In other words, the money tree of capitalism must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of workers and the poor.

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