Capitalism: Everything can and will be monetised!
Personally, I have a hard time understanding the nature of modern-day work culture. The work culture is designed to reward individuals who can sacrifice a major chunk of their adult lives to become indispensable and then they’re rewarded in monetary gains that perpetuates decadent consumption. A capitalistic model where men, women and children are seen as economic entities defeats every human purpose. If we see Maslov’s hierarchy of needs, we understand the nature of human motivations much clearly. There is an obvious need to work and earn money when you need it for basic survival needs in the form of food, shelter and providing for any dependents you may have. When one’s paycheck is more than enough to cover basic needs or one’s existing financial conditions is already stable enough (maybe because of one’s family inheritance), then one should investigate the motivations behind one’s work.
The contemporary capitalistic model has created an environment that in order to build friendship, social status and foundation for happiness, we have to look at the free market for answers which trades in everything human. People are seen as one-dimensional products; every emotion can be monetised; people’s time is equivalent to money. Capitalism has also cracked the mantra for happiness by bombarding us with ideas that a suburban house shoud be your end goal despite the crushing weight of mortgages or the new shoes you need to sport or the food that you get in fancy sounding eateries which is pretty enough for your Instagram to earn social brownie points. This loop of consumption of products will eventually fill that vacuum inside of you or else you’ll become addicted to money and the supposed short-lived happiness in terms of products it may buy.
Humanity's pursuit for happiness stems from meaning, and this comes from meaningful pursuits that are derived from relationships formed, work done, physical and mental well-being. Anyways, what is the motivation of young people when they go out for work? What is the point of being in debt by buying stuff that is just for pomp? What is the point vanity that eventually leads to a society that is being pushed from a successful technological optimism to a cyberpunk pessimistic future? These questions are asked often, but no one really instropsects on a personal level, and eventually gives in to the idea of a stable mundane job that pays well enough so that we keep buying stuff that capitalistic society have affirmed as the markers for a supposed ideal lifestyle. A pursuit for things, stuff and purchasable endeavours make us keep showing up to our work. In schools, colleges and in conversations with our parents and relatives and friends, we are just encouraged to gain a skill that will eventually help us land up in a job that pays well. It’s just all about getting paid and buying stuff. There is no enquiry in individual aspirations rather it is termed as hobbies, that is reserved for free time.
Karl Marx, and yes let’s not demonise him for a second, but understand his insights about capitalism. Marx observed that free time is not a bad thing but an indication for a well-developed society that is conscientious.His understanding of how capitalism isn’t really a perfect replacement of say oppressive systems such as Feudalism and Monarchies becasue it still promotes this ideology of masters and workers. An egalitarian society has been humanity’s dream, but now capitalism has created a bourgeoise or the middle class and a worker class that on the surface are way better than the last century, but still experiences a divide in social classes and power hierarchies. The democratic capitalist systems might have given an illusion that power is in the hands of people, but still, there is a powerful upper class in the names of bankers, politicians, elites, billionaires and lobbyists who thrives because of capitalism. Capitalistic models create a narrative of winners v/s losers; if you find yourself struggling to pay your credit card bills or student loans or your rent, well then you are a loser. A winner eventually will ride the capitalistic wave that will provide resources that will eventually feed into a capitalistic system of creating rich-poor and winners-loser dichotomies. The middle class is the target audiences and sheep for the ruling capitalists who effectively through advertisements which is literally everywhere these days have created a narrative of decadent consumption. The homeless folks, the misfits, the unfortunates, and the strugglers are the losers, whom capitalistic juggernaut have considered to be weaklings that society doesn’t and shouldn’t care about. There are talks about taking care of your community, planet, cul-de-sac neighbours and what-not, but it's coneveniently reserved for people who are doing well and playing by skewed capitalistic rules. There is an illusion of virtuous deed when we need to sign petitions and participate in some sort of protests, but generally, capitalism cares for individual self-interest over actual community care. I believe empathy is something that needs to be cultivated to actually care about one another rather adopting a cavalier attitude that one’s failure is a result of one’s failure to pull oneself by one’s bootstraps. What a bunch of baloney! George Carlin describes the condition of capitalism hilariously by observing that, ‘the upper class keeps all of the money, pays none of the taxes. The middle class pays all of the taxes, does all of the work. The poor are there just to scare the shit out of the middle class. Keep 'em showin' up at those jobs.’ Now, the way capitalism works is that it takes the power away from its scathing critic by commodifying it; this exact George Carlin quote will be printed on t-shirt, mugs and other stuff, and it will be monetized. Now the message is lost because George Carlin has become a product that can be monetized in this new market of criticising capitalism. Capitalism sells everything and sees everything as marketable, and if there enough purchaser then the anti-capitalistic revolution can be monetized in a capitalistic fashion. That’s oxymoronic, ironic and sad, all at the same time.
Capitalistic consumptions don’t really care about Earth as well. You need constant manufacturing to feed addicted consumers, and who cares if it creates ecological imbalances, contributes to global warming and climate change. Third world countries and other developing countries are keen to remodel themselves in order to get on the capitalistic wave. China, who have anti-democracy and anti-American stance have embraced capitalism wholeheartedly. They understand that its a useful tool to keep the middle class busy in meaningless pursuit of money and products and hollow vanity. Marxism is just plainly dismissed because of its a scathing critic of what our society has become today: a land where everything can be packaged and sold to clueless addcited customers. Thanks to the internet, even anti-capitalistic stance in the name of communism, socialism, Marxism and what-not have a market, which is antithetical to the idea. For instance, socially and morally conscious people who tried to embrace mindfulness, veganism and other form spiritual endeavours found themselves to be absorbed by capitalism which now observes these services as products, which can be marketed, advertised and sold to potential consumers. Capitalism has converted a planet of humans who wants to be governed by their meaningful pursuits inform of survival and sexual needs and eventualy pursuit of self-actualisation to a gigantic global market of commodities and services. Your walk, talk and emotional responses can all be monetised and have been monetised thanks to social media giants such as Facebook and Google. Don’t be a Marxist or a Socialist, but don’t blatantly say that capitalism is the endgame and we can continue this form of capitalism that we are observing at present. Maybe it’s good to have capitalist endeavour to run athriving business and a working economy but constructive criticism of when and how it’s getting out of hand is necessary because exacerbating consumption of resources to feed the capitalistic juggernaut is destroying the ecosystem, basic human dignities and altering meaningful pursuits of happiness?