Mental Health and Capitalism

The Depressing Nature of Capitalism

One of the many and possibly more disturbing facets of decaying moribund capitalism is the mental health crisis. And the decay of the system and the rise of mental health crisis is no coincidence. It is a very common thing in society, particularly in young people.

Societal Decay

With ongoing deindustrialisation and a decline in living standards, young people in particular (those who were born in 1995 and later, of which I the writer am one) only know utter misery and penury. We have seen our public places close due to rising costs: youth clubs, local pubs, leisure centres and libraries, so that our level of leisure has disintegrated as the crisis of capitalism rises. Unemployment is skyrocketing and the welfare is seen as the only option for many young people, leaving us in a cycle of doom and despair.

Social Media and Technology

The promotion of social media and tech, particularly with smart phones, have further exacerbated the crisis. The whole use of social media ‘likes’ are twisted as a weapon to determine one’s self-worth. It is a weapon of exploitation with young people especially selling themselves and causing great amounts of pressure and stress. 

Social media, instead of being used as a way of socialising and keeping contact with people when they are away (which by technological standards is great), instead promotes alienation and atomisation, which leads to depression and despair. Dating sites are another dagger to the mind of the average worker. They remove and atomise people seeking meaningful relationships.

Unfulfilling Jobs

The penury of work is a cause for deadening the mind too. Abusive management (particularly in retailers like B&M and Amazon), zero-hour contracts that cause insecurity and an inability to plan one’s personal and family life, temporary contracts, agencies, work that is drudgery and has no meaning etc., all profoundly and detrimentally impact the minds of people who are trying to make a living and survive. Not thrive, just survive. 

The threat of CEOs using AI to cut down their workforces so they can save money is another telltale sign that the wellbeing of workers is almost practically non-existent. Hell, there are even worksites that use yoga classes to combat mental health, but it can only be used at lunchtimes. So people who want to calm down need to eat a sandwich whilst doing yoga, the profound logic of this is unimaginable!

The Cost of Living and Privatisation

The rising costs of everything and privatisation of health and education services make living conditions for working class people even tougher and for young people, blight their future. The fact is, it costs more to live and to create a meaningful life or to preserve health and wellbeing yet we are continually stripped of the opportunity to earn decent wages to pay for these services – which used to be free. Remember when they were called public services! The fact that basic human needs are made near-impossible to access has a profound effect on peoples’ mental preservation.

We keep pretending, particularly in the liberal media, that bad mental health comes out of a vacuum when the common causes are due to the rising crisis of capitalism. It would be a mistake to say there is a coincidence in this. 

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 or other mental issues rise because primarily the bad conditions of capitalism have also risen.

Nothing arises out of a vacuum. The future of young people, the future of humanity is at stake. The cause is clear, the cause is capitalism. Whilst your mind is still active, educate yourself.

In a socialist society, we will all work for each other, for our communities and our country, not for a minority of profit-makers.
Work is a joy when you see it’s benefits all around you, when you aren’t alienated from what you do, whether it’s cleaning the streets or caring for our kids.
Pubs and sports clubs won’t close down because of ground rents raised by greedy landlords. Nobody will be homeless for the same reason.
No-one will fear their neighbours when we all have the same goals to achieve.
Don’t worry that things will get worse. We have to act together before they do.

Discover how socialism is a real alternative, an imperative and the medicine that will positively change humanity.

Helen Astin-Hardman