Mental Health and Capitalism

The System Is Making Us Sick Both Mentally And Physically

Article Written By Comrade Luke

One of the many, and possibly more disturbing, facets of decaying moribund capitalism is the rise of the mental health crisis. The decay of this system and the rise of the (widely acknowledged) mental health crisis is no coincidence.

From 2022 to 2023, the suicide rate has increased from 5.4 to 5.7 per 100,000 peoples, there are reports of people with OCD tripling in 10 years. The rise of anxiety, depression and other mental health issues rise because primarily the crisis of capitalism in the west has intensified.

These mental health problems are a very common thing in western societies now, particularly amongst young working class people. In this article we will examine some of the main causes of this widespread crisis.

1.  Societal Decay:

With the ongoing deindustrialization and decline of living standards, young people in particular (those who were born 1995 and over, which I the writer fit in that category) have only seen a society in relentless decline. The younger generations have seen many public places close due to rising costs; be it youth clubs, pubs, leisure centres and libraries, hence their level of leisure disintegrate as the crises of capitalism arise.

Unemployment is skyrocketing amongst young workers and with being stuck on benefits being some sort of only option for many, which would leave people in a cycle of despair until they do find something. Being stuck on the dole is no kind of life for any young worker, something which those who scream “welfare not warfare” totally fail to understand.

2. Social media and technology:

The promotion of social media and tech, particularly smart phones, have further exacerbated the mental health crisis, especially since they are used for exploitation. The whole use of “likes” is twisted as a weapon to rate peoples’ self worth. It is a weapon of exploitation leading to people selling themselves and causing great amount of pressure. 

Social media, instead of it being used as a way of socialising and keeping in contact with people when they are away promotes alienation and atomization, which leads to depression and despair.

Dating sites are another dagger of the mind to the average workers. As it can remove and atomize the people who are seeking meaningful relationships. The monetisation of the most important human feelings only drives home how much capitalism is an anti human system.

3. Unfulfilling jobs:

Conditions in many workplaces have been deteriorating over the last decade. This is often caused by poor or abusive management (particularly in big retailers like B&M and Amazon), zero hour contracts, temporary contracts and agency work.

All this has a profound impact on the minds of people who are trying to make a living. It means that workplaces are sites of permanent insecurity where not only is it the case that you’re work is exploitative but very insecure with permanent contracts becoming more scarce as time goes on.  

The threat of the bosses using “AI” to cut jobs so they can save money is another tell tale sign that concern for the wellbeing of workers is entirely absent under capitalism. There are even workplaces that use yoga classes to try and aid their staff’s mental health, but it can only be done on lunchtimes. So people who want to calm down need to eat a sandwich whilst doing yoga. You can only laugh at the bitter irony of this. Workers need security but as the system is totally unable to guarantee that the employers resort to desperate gimmicks in order pretend that they are addressing the mental health crisis.

4. The Cost of Living and Privatisation:

The rising costs of everything and privatisation of services; mainly health services as well as the degradation of the education services via cuts and privatisation. Young working class people are told that we must get an education up to university level but that leaves you in large amounts of debt. The ability to live independently is also being taken away from young working class people as the availability of housing reaches crisis levels. The destruction of council housing, the drastic rise in the cost of private rents and the ever spiralling cost of buying a home have combined to make having a roof over your a head a very costly thing for the younger generation of workers. We also see the increase in the cost of food, transport and utilities meaning that for many young workers, the crap job that you hate going to doesn’t even cover the most basic costs of living anymore. All of this creates fear, alienation and insecurity and lies at the root of the mental health crisis.

Epilogue

The pro-capitalist media keep on pretending that the mental health crisis comes out of a vacuum. when the common causes is due to the rising crises of capitalism. This is because both the capitalist media are unable to acknowledge that the mental health crisis amongst young workers is down to the decay of the system that they (as propagandists of capital) are employed to defend.

What is clear though is that the younger generations who have grown up at a time of widespread economic insecurity, alienation and the promotion by the ruling class of a rotten individualistic culture has led to this crisis point. More than anything else now young workers need security, community, solidarity and a sense of purpose.

The decaying capitalist system cannot provide that, only socialism can. In the struggle for socialism it will be the angry and alienated youth who will eventually lead the charge. They have only known capitalism as a decaying system that offers them nothing and this will make them the gravediggers of this rotten system.