Monetizing everything is inherent in capitalism, though. It’s why the auto companies bought up streetcar lines and tore them out to make people more dependent on cars. Capitalism is not responsible for all mental health problems, but there is a clear incentive to promote it so that the capitalist class can sell services, and it wouldn’t be out of the question to over-diagnose or even help create the conditions to gain more customers.
Monetizing everything is inherent in capitalism, though
nah. there’s “limited capitalism” where only parts of society are monetized, like heavy industries. it’s neoliberalism that monetizes everything. this means that if you want childcare, you pay for it. in earlier decades/centuries, that was done by the wife / community.
So? How is monetizing everything worse than being a tenant farmer whose lord squeezes everything possible from their serfs. There’s nothing unique to capitalism about the poor being exploited.
As always the reality is more nuanced. But yes, I’d argue that the late stage capitalism were live in is at least partially to blame for indirectly causing the mental health crisis
Off-hand, I can see the affordability crisis and over-reliance on debt to finance people’s lives, while at the same time threatening labor with outsourcing, AI, whatever to replace them and their ability to make a living leads to tremendous amounts of stress. A constant high level of stress is devastating for mental health. These all work together to squeeze people at both ends, maximizing money made off people just living and then offering paid services to promise relief (even though the situation the capitalist class has created is the problem itself).
Capitalism is the current system we’re living in that is creating the rich and poor as they exist today. That isn’t to say there isn’t inequality in other systems, but it’s possible to adopt a different system that is less open to abuse, just like how we moved on from feudalism. Why continue playing a game with fundamentally broken rules?
Is it really possible to adopt a different system that is less open to abuse? Are there real world examples, not just Star Trek?
Communism is great in theory, but in practice it doesn’t seem to allow for actual human nature. As a result, communist countries tend to quickly turn extremely authoritarian and are communist only in name. There are other systems that work for small, isolated communities, but they don’t seem to work when done on a country-sized scale.
Capitalism may suck, but capitalism in a democratic republic with a mix of socialist elements, especially as it’s done in northern Europe seems like a good compromise between something that is actually workable in the real world, and something that gives people at the bottom some agency. Of course, that system needs to be regulated or it collapses back towards authoritarianism and feudalism. Northern Europe seems to be doing a pretty good job of regulating their systems, whereas countries like the US are failing in a spectacular way.
But, if you can point to another system that has actually been tried and found to work in the real world, I’m happy to learn more.
not muh human nature argument pls. If anything capitalism is the system more susceptible to antisocial behavior. it openly rewards it.
I feel like youre more or less saying “yeah capitalism works just fine as long as we ignore the people that have to get crushed to death to sustain it”
Saying it’s capitalism that’s responsible for mental health problems reminds me of the people who say “we didn’t have autism back in my day”.
Something doesn’t have to be the SOLE cause of a problem to call it A cause, which in this case is indisputably true.
Capitalism exploits the human condition, this absolutely will lead to mental health issues for most.
What do you mean?
no money -> problems -> mental health problems
Monetizing everything is inherent in capitalism, though. It’s why the auto companies bought up streetcar lines and tore them out to make people more dependent on cars. Capitalism is not responsible for all mental health problems, but there is a clear incentive to promote it so that the capitalist class can sell services, and it wouldn’t be out of the question to over-diagnose or even help create the conditions to gain more customers.
nah. there’s “limited capitalism” where only parts of society are monetized, like heavy industries. it’s neoliberalism that monetizes everything. this means that if you want childcare, you pay for it. in earlier decades/centuries, that was done by the wife / community.
So? How is monetizing everything worse than being a tenant farmer whose lord squeezes everything possible from their serfs. There’s nothing unique to capitalism about the poor being exploited.
Nobody said feudalism is better, in fact my post was saying the opposite and using that to make the point that we can still improve things.
a few things can be true at once. capitalism is indeed responsible for its shard of problems yes.
Depression is not an medical issue and autism is not an illness.
As always the reality is more nuanced. But yes, I’d argue that the late stage capitalism were live in is at least partially to blame for indirectly causing the mental health crisis
It sure is responsible for the prevalence of mental health problems today
How so?
Off-hand, I can see the affordability crisis and over-reliance on debt to finance people’s lives, while at the same time threatening labor with outsourcing, AI, whatever to replace them and their ability to make a living leads to tremendous amounts of stress. A constant high level of stress is devastating for mental health. These all work together to squeeze people at both ends, maximizing money made off people just living and then offering paid services to promise relief (even though the situation the capitalist class has created is the problem itself).
How is that “capitalism”? That’s just poor people being exploited by the rich and powerful, as has always been the case.
Capitalism is the current system we’re living in that is creating the rich and poor as they exist today. That isn’t to say there isn’t inequality in other systems, but it’s possible to adopt a different system that is less open to abuse, just like how we moved on from feudalism. Why continue playing a game with fundamentally broken rules?
Is it really possible to adopt a different system that is less open to abuse? Are there real world examples, not just Star Trek?
Communism is great in theory, but in practice it doesn’t seem to allow for actual human nature. As a result, communist countries tend to quickly turn extremely authoritarian and are communist only in name. There are other systems that work for small, isolated communities, but they don’t seem to work when done on a country-sized scale.
Capitalism may suck, but capitalism in a democratic republic with a mix of socialist elements, especially as it’s done in northern Europe seems like a good compromise between something that is actually workable in the real world, and something that gives people at the bottom some agency. Of course, that system needs to be regulated or it collapses back towards authoritarianism and feudalism. Northern Europe seems to be doing a pretty good job of regulating their systems, whereas countries like the US are failing in a spectacular way.
But, if you can point to another system that has actually been tried and found to work in the real world, I’m happy to learn more.
not muh human nature argument pls. If anything capitalism is the system more susceptible to antisocial behavior. it openly rewards it.
I feel like youre more or less saying “yeah capitalism works just fine as long as we ignore the people that have to get crushed to death to sustain it”