Austerity today is associated with individuals, and with them the ideologies of these figures. Names like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan are seen as inherently intertwined with “neo-liberalism” or “neo-conservatism”. This characterization is made either consciously by the demagogues of social democracy or by “progressives” who, in their criticism of austerity, suggest that they could rule over capital more effectively and somehow stave off austerity; or it is done unconsciously due to a lack of theoretical understanding of capitalism and its economic foundations.