This post may include affiliate links.
As Dr. Ron Roberts, a chartered psychologist, lecturer at Kingston University, and author of several books such as Mental Health in Crisis and Psychology and Capitalism: The Manipulation of Mind, pointed out, capitalism is about creating endless wants and needs.
"[It is about] creating the idea that there is something inherently deficient in us — and that when we cannot cope, it is because of individual weakness, defect or fragility, rather than the exploitative nature of the system," the psychologist told Bored Panda. "This is reflected in the mental health system which identifies any difficulties in coping as illness or disorder. No matter how inhuman the system, we are supposed to manage without problems."
In theory, capitalism as a system may sound simple. It is rewarding effort, growth, and innovation, all while fueling the economic growth of human civilization. This system encourages the free market and provides opportunities for everyone willing to put in the work. But as great as it sounds on paper, the reality is much more complicated than that.
Capitalism has a bad reputation for causing inequality and alienation. Many workers see it as corrupt, unethical, uncaring, and often in line with what’s in the minds of the people in power. The capitalist society is maximizing profits like there’s no tomorrow, and it’s beginning to look like it’s going too far. After all, things have been getting pretty dystopian, from overworked employees that are having enough of being exploited to the middle class shrinking at alarming rates, and to the soaring inflation that makes it feel almost impossible to afford to be a person anymore.
What we see now often gets labeled as late-stage capitalism, a popular catch-all phrase that refers to the inequalities and injustices of the contemporary economy. As Kimberly Amadeo, the president of World Money Watch explained, it highlights the unrealistic views of the wealthiest 1% and describes how the middle class is largely unaware of the struggles of the poor. "It's the sense that monopolies, and the oligarchs that run them, have rigged the system in their favor," she wrote. "Many feel that capitalism's winners may even favor inequality. With it, they have fewer competitive threats. They 'rig the system' by creating barriers to entry."
This phrase expresses people’s frustrations with the modern capitalist society, something that has been years in the making. In the hunt for never-ending profit, capitalism as a whole has disappointed people and even started failing them. Many are questioning our world and why it allows a select few to thrive while the rest of society has a hard time trying to make ends meet.
According to Denise Stanley, a professor of economics at California State University-Fullerton, capitalism may have lifted millions of people out of absolute poverty, but inequality can be corrosive within a society. "Absolute poverty is basically folks are able to get… $4 per day per person. It’s a threshold measure," she explained.
The economy is growing, but income inequality can make people feel insecure as their relative status in the economy declines. Behavioral economists have shown that "our status compared to other people, our happiness, is derived more by relative measures and distribution than by absolute measures. If that’s true then capitalism has a problem," Stanley said.
"Capitalism is inherently exploitative," Dr. Roberts told us. "What we have now is a form of capitalism in which the social constraints on its operation given by the power of organized labor are perhaps at their weakest for some considerable time. The system always seeking new expanding markets now seeks to commoditize all aspects of human behavior and feeling."
"Capitalism has always been at odds with many human values — as its overriding purpose is to produce profit, not human well-being. Treating human beings as commodities effectively turns them into things, sources of profit. As the psychoanalyst Erich Fromm remarked, it turns human life away from the enjoyment of being into seeking relationships based on possessing or 'having.'"
Financial expert Sam Dogen told us in an earlier interview that there is no perfect economic system. "However, capitalism is the best system we've got that advances technology, increases productivity and efficiency, and gives people a chance to improve their financial situation. Capitalism provides people the most hope to get ahead based on hard work. Therefore, I believe capitalism will remain the system going forward," he explained.
However, the system's shortcomings have become extremely apparent, especially in the past few years. "The biggest flaw to capitalism is nepotism and family dynasties," Dogen told us. "This happens when the extraordinarily wealthy hoard their wealth and provide favors to their friends and children. This helps ensure the rich get richer and the powerful stay powerful. Nepotism doesn't mean the rest of us can't get ahead as well. It just means that certain people will have a much easier time getting ahead than others."
