One of the assumptions of the ‘repressive hypothesis’ is that sexual desire is inefficient, and threatens to unbalance the system of production and consumption if it is not channeled and repressed – sexuality (as a discourse, as a set of power relations and taboos around sex) is an effect of economic relations, and consequently has an easily intelligible motivating force, the imperative to maximize production. Foucault’s move is to place sexual and economic, as well as knowledge relationships, on a single level.