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We all feel the impacts of capitalism on our general wellbeing from time to time. Whether it’s
feeling overscheduled, struggling with the precarious balancing act of work and life, or feeling
generally burnt out from the sheer amount we’re asked to produce, we are wont to complain
about the havoc that capitalistic structures can wreak on our mental health.
And yet, many of us ultimately resign ourselves over to capitalism’s strong grip. We vent our
frustrations, then return to our regularly (over)scheduled programming, accepting the toll as the
cost of chasing an increasingly unattainable American dream.
In doing so, we often overlook the quieter, more insidious ways that capitalism is eroding our
mental health.
The Busy-ness Epidemic
One of the more obvious ways that capitalism impacts us is our growing addiction to being and
staying busy. When there is constant messaging around producing the most outputs, over time,
we take in that messaging, applying it to our lives outside of work. Whether it be through training
for a marathon, saying yes to every social event that comes our way, or building our bodies to
look like that of an Olympian, we set up personal KPIs and keep ourselves busy trying to
achieve them.
And while setting goals and working toward them can be incredibly beneficial to our mental
health and attention, the perhaps less obvious detriment to our mental health can be seen when
we consider what we are losing when we schedule away our “free time.”
Our constant need to be engaged in some form of stimulus reduces the moments of quiet in
between—the moments when we are unplugged from our devices and other people and plans
and KPIs. These moments that were once taken for granted as a part of the everyday social
fabric of our lives now only exist if we are intentional about them. When’s the last time you left
your phone behind to run an errand, or went for a walk unplugged, or lounged around in your
house without the TV or stereo being on? In other words, when was the last time that you were
alone with yourself?
Although having moments of true silence feels like something the human race has evolved past,
our psychology has not. In fact, numerous studies warn that the constant demands on our
attention lead to reduced overall cognitive functioning, as our brains are not built for paying
attention to more than one thing simultaneously (that’s right–we actually can’t multitask
effectively).
When we’re constantly adding new stimuli into our attention arena, we overwhelm our cognitive
mechanisms. The results on our mental health lead to impaired memory, reduced ability to
sustain attention (ADHD symptoms), and reduced mindful awareness. This symptom
combination is dangerous, as our brains get burnt out and our attention weakens at the same
time that our ability to recognize what is happening and introduce needed interventions
decreases.
In short, our addiction to staying busy paired with our lack of time to be with ourselves leads to
an increase in general anxiety and feelings of mental burnout. The more these anxious cycles
continue without adequate ways of addressing them, the more they get reinforced in the brain.
Let’s think of an example. Imagine someone (you?) that feels anxious at work about a task, or
even the amount of tasks that they have to complete in the span of an afternoon. As a means of
coping with this anxiety, they look to their phones, beginning a sure and steady doom-scrolling
session. Afterwards, they’re left feeling burnt out from that activity, and their capacity to
complete the initial task in front of them feels near to impossible.
Sound familiar? This is an experience we’ve probably all engaged in, and it highlights how
stimulus-seeking can erode our attention and contribute to increased mental fatigue and
reduced cognitive capacity.
Conditional Self-Worth
Another impact of capitalism’s productivity-centricism on our mental health is that productivity is
often utilized as the primary marker to measure our overall worth and value. There’s a reason
that we have been conditioned to be addicted to doing rather than being. According to
capitalism, the more we do, the more we can achieve. The more we can achieve, the more we
can earn. The more we earn, the more we are worth in society.
In a capitalistic society, economic structures are privatized and in perpetual competition with
each other. To survive is to turn a profit. Within that framework, the pressure to produce
something of value is crucial and relentless.
And while it makes sense to adopt this mentality within an economic setting, the impacts of this
framework on the human psyche are grave.
So, what’s the harm in viewing your worth as correlative to your production, you may wonder?
The truth is, it goes against fundamental humanistic values of equal worth and value.
Because we are all fundamentally the same, from a species perspective, it would posit that we
all inherently hold the same amount of worth and value. Meaning a successful, good-looking,
Hollywood actor inherently holds the same amount of worth as a trans person living on the streets
of LA.
When worth becomes conditional to the “value” we are producing within society or at work, we
begin to weigh ourselves against other members of society, formulating opinions and biases of
who is more worthy, more deserving of certain luxuries, including basic human rights.
Not only is this comparative worth dangerous from a social justice perspective, it also proves to
be extremely detrimental to our personal mental health. For example, let’s say you got laid off.
The reasons cited for the layoff were performance-related. Imagine this for a moment. How
would you feel about yourself?
One of the corrosive side effects of capitalism is its ability to promote shame within us. If our
worth is dependent on the amount we are producing based on this economic system we are a
part of, then when we aren’t producing, for reasons in or outside of our control, the way we feel
about ourselves changes. We start to worry, fear, or even believe that we are not worthy of love,
acceptance, and belonging in society. The only way to find our way back is to get back on the
production bandwagon.
The major issue with this incentive system is that shame actually erodes our resilience in the
long run, for if we truly believe ourselves to be unworthy, our actions, whether consciously or
subconsciously, begin to reflect that over time.
Profit Over Connection
Capitalism incentivizes us to keep our attention on what matters most to it: productivity and
profit. These principles, while central to capitalism, are in fact incompatible with what matters
most to humans: connection.
Perhaps one of the most significant ways that capitalism impacts our mental health is that it
pulls us away from meaningful connection and belonging by prioritizing work above all else.
Let’s think about how this looks in modern-day society. In Western, capitalistic cultures,
canceling on social plans for work obligations is not merely normalized, but often encouraged.
It’s not abnormal for people to wear their busy-ness at work like a badge of honor, skirting on
other responsibilities as a partner, parent, friend, sibling, and child. We’re expected to show up
and be on time for our jobs, but how often do we cancel plans last minute with our friends, or
flake on a family outing due to having to catch up on work?
When these sorts of behaviors become widely accepted as the norm, over time, our standards
for one another around connection drop, ultimately creating conditions for the loneliness
epidemic to thrive. When we’re so plugged into the pulse at work, but have little idea of what is
going on in the lives of our close friends and family, it’s no wonder we’re left feeling
disconnected from the world around us and sometimes struggle to connect back to each other.
Oftentimes, as our interpersonal connections weaken, we turn deeper into work as a means of
seeking or reinforcing our value.
Recognizing the Clash
The ethos of capitalism, including profit seeking, competition, productivity, and self-reliance, are
counter to humanistic principles of equal worth, belonging, community, and connection.
With capitalism at the core of our vocational structures, self-care, inherent worth, and social
connection are often decentered. While this system benefits the structures of our economy, it
creates an insidious negative impact on us. And, although capitalism is not solely responsible
for cognitive fatigue, inattention, burnout, shame, and the loneliness epidemic, it’s hard to ignore
the role it plays in contributing to these mental health burdens that plague modern-day society.
The reality is, many of us are unable to leave the tank of capitalism to swim in more expansive
waters. Given capitalism is here to stay, it’s worth noting how these structures are shaping us in
the long term and thinking critically about how we can continue to earn a living and feel
productive at work while also practicing centering what truly matters: connecting with ourselves
and others.
