ABSTRACT
Within the study of political economy, financialization has emerged as a concept to describe the growing influence of the financial sector on other parts of the economy. This chapter is concerned specifically with the effects of financialization on long-term care. Considering the case of Ontario, Canada, as an illustrative example, it argues that the treatment of long-term care homes as an asset class to maximize returns for investors constitutes an important underlying cause of the increasingly austere circumstances marking long-term care. Furthermore, it demonstrates that while Ontario regulates long-term care, the government actively permits its financialization by facilitating the growth and expansion of financialized providers. The chapter also examines financialization through the lens of feminist political economy to argue that one outcome of finance-driven austerity is an unrecognized, underpaid, and unjust burden placed on women to fill the care-gap. Ultimately, the incentives embedded in financialization are shown to be uniquely at odds with the provision of quality care and decent work in Ontario’s long-term care homes.
