Capitalism
I find that when I start off a conversation with “I hate capitalism…”, people automatically get defensive.
“What’s your solution? What’s your alternative?”
“Aren’t you implicit in the capitalistic system as well?”
“It’s the best thing we got for now”
“You’re just a dreamer”
“Are you trying to change human nature?”
Suffice to say, critiquing capitalism evokes strong feelings in other people. People assume that to critique capitalism means you must have somehow absolved yourself from the guilt that is, living under capitalism, and somehow found the solution to this challenging, complex problem that scholars in the subject have dedicated their lives too. That is absolutely — dare I say — ridiculous of an assumption, but it often helps lessen their own guilt.
My relationship with capitalism has been a complicated one that is constantly evolving. I found that critiquing capitalism has given me the tools to express the mental health struggles I was experiencing under a system that prioritizes people’s commodified value over their intrinsic value. I gained the language to realize that what I was feeling was not something unique to me, but something that all experience under capitalism, to greater or lesser degrees. And that, in itself, was a liberating feeling.
I first was exposed to an alternative idea of capitalism in my Marxism class in college. All throughout middle and high school, I had learned to associate capitalism with “good” and communism with “evil” but the schools never explained why. In my Marxism class in college was where I was exposed to ideas of “exchange-value” and “intrinsic value”. Ideas of the alienation of labor. Of reification and wholeness. I tossed these ideas around, intellectually, theoretically, not really understanding their value.
Then, as I left college for the workforce, and started paying more attention to social movements, I started to see the applications of these concepts in reality. It’s as though society sees the idea of being anti-capitalist as a radical notion, but is it really that radical to want equality and human dignity for every person? To have no exploitation of workers, of human beings? To prevent the earth from being destroyed? To have access to medication for all? If we say these ideas, one by one, they don’t seem radical by themselves. But then the idea of anti-capitalism — which encompasses all these wants — is radical.
I think its mostly because people don’t understand what anti-capitalism means. Or exactly how capitalism is tied to violence and exploitation of those with less power in society. We start with the capitalist, who tries to get the most productivity out of his or her workers for the least amount of cost (wage). (See: Elon Musk. Jeff Bezos.) Workers are alienated from the products of their labor, as they only play a fractional role in the creation, assembly, and delivery of a product due to the specialization of labor. Workers themselves become mere commodities, with a certain amount of “capital value” attached to their talents and intellect. Through the lens of capitalism, we began to view people as a means to an end: that is, profit — rather than an end in and of themselves, which is how humanity ought to see each other.
Profit and the profit motive. I’d say that the human desire for profit — and with it, power, wealth, and security in society — is a main driver of structural evil in the world. Look at our healthcare system, for instance, where big pharma is unregulated and drug prices are astronomically high. What about our medical school and residency programs, where spots are limited to keep physician salaries high? How about our nutritional guidelines in the US, which have had extensive lobbying from the dairy and meat industries? America is having an epidemic of chronic diseases, the number one killer in the US. And guess what the number one cause of chronic disease is? Bad diet and exercise (which, incidentally has replaced smoking, now #2). Capitalism is literally killing us, and the growing inequality in the US between the haves and have-nots is a problem that will shatter the stability of society as a whole, and also the stability of our earth as a habitable environment to live in.
It’s often demoralizing when I think about capitalism — just this mammoth entity of transactions, profit, exploitation, violence toward human kind. I would love to live in a society that was kind and compassionate and fulfilling, where people have the ability to follow their passions without worrying about how their passions can generate income for survival in society. A world where one would be whole — as Marx described it — to be species being: a form of self-realization or self-actualization resulting from fulfilling or meaningful work. Species being reconnects individuals with the fruits of their labor and empowers them toward true self-governance.
Moving toward this post-capitalistic future is what we should be working toward. On a small scale, being anti-capitalist might mean truly trying to see other people as who they want to be seen: seeing the world through a humanistic lens, and not a commodified one. It could mean a simple greeting with a long-time friend or being kind to a stranger. On a larger level, it could mean getting involved in climate change actions, workers unions, and trying to put an end to exploitative practices in all areas of society. Being anti-capitalist doesn’t mean you think you, by yourself, can create a new society. But you can improve the current one; we all can.
