Capitalist Psychology

Are you happy, content, fulfilled? If so, capitalism has failed its mission, for it needs you to want more. It needs you to be unhappy, discontent and unfulfilled; why else would you run out to the store to buy something new?

Ever since the Great War and especially after the Second World War, the holy grail of capitalism has been GDP growth. This in itself was just a step up the scale from capitalism't fundamental drive towards making profits; we now measure not only individual success, but that of the nation. Of course we now know, certainly if you're a regular here on my blog, that GDP growth says absolutely nothing about how well individual citizens of a nation are doing, how happy or content they are. If you've never heard it yet, listen to Robert F. Kennedy's remarks on the GDP here.

Our obsession with growth has never benefited everyone, but instead made the rich richer and the poor poorer. It also had a devastating impact on the planet, the environment and the climate. And most of all, it's had, and still having, a devastatingly negative effect on our mental health. Of course this in itself presents new opportunities for even more growth; antidepressant drug sales have soared and are projected to keep soaring. This is just another way in which capitalism creates problems, needs or wants, and then sells us the solution or wish-fulfillment.

The global antidepressant drugs market size was valued at USD 15,651.0 Million in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 21,004.8 Million by 2030, registering a CAGR of 3.0% from 2021 to 2030.
_{source: Valuates Reports}

Of all the manufacturing done in our economy, the manufacture of desire is the most important for sustained growth. Since the 1920s, when technological innovation had generated massive increases in productivity, we've been in a constant crisis of overproduction; our ability to produce has outperformed our desire for consumption. Capitalism 101 demands that of supply is plentiful, demand has to keep up. And if demand is lacking, it has to be manufactured. This is why it's vitally important to keep us, the consumers, unhappy and unfulfilled, or our economy would grind to a screeching halt.

Instead of reflecting on what humans really need and how to best deliver that, we chose to focus on productivity for the sake of productivity. We could have gone another way, but capitalism and capitalists have this magnificent ability to turn crises into opportunities, so they respond to overproduction by stimulating desire. Along came a whole new industry designed solely to produce desire to stimulate the demand that capitalism and capitalists need to keep the engine of growth running.

To further this cause, the “Madmen” of the postwar years drew on a vision of humanity that cast us all as restless, insatiable consumers. Their latter-day mimics pursue our every move with algorithm-driven marketing, promising unrivaled happiness—so long as we continue to shop. Was it our imagination? Or did lockdown bring a step-change in our online exposure to instant gratification? We know it isn’t real. But the lure is irresistible. Like kids in the candy shop, we are continually persuaded to spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need—to create impressions that won’t last on people we don’t love. In the meantime, the poor still suffer. And the planet reels from our indulgences.
_{source: Fast Company}

"Spend money we don't have on things we don't need—to create impressions that won't last on people we don't love." If that's not a striking summary of our current state of being, I don't know what is. We've reached a point where we accept that we're bombarded by capitalism's empty promises. We know on a subconscious level that we're likely to be disappointed by most of our purchases as they don't deliver what we've been promised, but we still keep buying them. Maybe there's a relation with how many of us also believe the empty promises of authoritarian demagogue fake populists or wild conspiracies. Is the capitalism-induced nihilism of perpetual empty promises leaking over into all other aspects of our lives? I'm not sure, but it doesn't seem all that far-fetched to me.

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