I was listening today to one of my favorite podcasts, Unregistered hosted by historian Thaddeus Russell. His guest was an author named Doug Lain who described himself as a leftist and Marxist. It was a very interesting conversation that I fully recommend you listen to if you're interested in anything related to American politics, culture, or economic systems in general.
They touched on a number of important topics but the most important thing was the discussion of life in different economic systems. In typical Marxist fashion, Doug talked about finding a different way to operate economically other than exploitation by capitalists. He expanded on this by talking about how it's bad for human life to live under the capitalist hierarchy. Even though Thaddeus tends to agree with free market types, he admitted this also worries him, and the feeling of living in a capitalist society gives him anxiety, that it could all be gone tomorrow.
These sentiments are in the same vein that come straight from Marx. He goes through all the different types of alienation that come from capitalist work. The worker is alienated from the product of his labor, his fellow workers, etc. But the most "relatable" one is that the worker is alienated from himself, and that he's basically prevented from self actualization.
This is supposed to be a critique of capitalism, but is it? Where is it written that an economic system is supposed to help you fulfill your hopes and dreams? People talk about how much pressure there is to have a career and to make that career a defining part of your identity. Yeah, so? I personally agree with that. But there's nobody forcing you to do that. You're free to simply live a life that provides enough for you so you don't die and you can dedicate the rest of your time to something that you feel fulfills you. The industrial age of the 19th century that most people view as the beginning of "capitalism" is the first time in history people of any class were able to start doing things they really enjoyed and felt that fulfilled them. At every period in history before that, luxury was, well, a luxury. People worked all day just to survive, just like animals looked for food all the time just to survive. But once this element of something beyond that on their hierarchy of needs was available, they felt that they should be able to get that from their activities at lower levels of the hierarchy.
Capitalism, or economics in general, was never a promise to fulfill you and make you a happy and in perfect mental health. It exists to allocate resources so that you won't die. That's all.