Capitalism is a health emergency

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2016/may/hair-root-understanding-our-stress-levels

"The results showed that cortisol concentration was 20% higher in the group of women who earned the least compared to women who earned the most."

If stress is the biggest killer in the West being behind all the chronic diseases like heart attack, stroke cancer, dementia and low income is linked to stress then to improve the health of the population we need to increase everyone's income.

Now Capitalists argue that the way to increase incomes is economic growth. Then there is more economy, more market, more jobs, and more money in circulation to raise incomes.

But there is a problem Capitalism raises EVERYONE'S income, so after the raise you are still in the same place! If you were on lower income to start with then no amount of Capitalism can change that! Capitalism and economic growth can't cure the stress above.

In fact Capitalism will make it worse as the income distribution does not just shift to the right, it also stretches to the right. The wealthy get ever more relatively wealthy.

Current US wealth distribution (2023)

So you see someone on the TV with an income of $1million per year and your income is $40,000. So you are 4% as wealthy as them.

In 10 years you see someone with an income of $1billion per year and your income is $60,000 so you are just 0.006% as wealthy as them. Have you grown more wealthy or less? Well the way the human brain works you have grown less wealthy because it is relative.

This is why Capitalism actually spreads poverty whilst appearing to make people more wealthy.

Have argued at length in this blog why this is. But its easy to see it is true. Go back 100 years and the wealthy travelled in horse drawn coaches. Now even the poorest can travel by car. Yet did the wealthy feel poor in the past? No! Relatively the best that was on offer was horse drawn carriage so that made them feel wealthy.

Likewise the time will come in the not so distant future when we can take genetic treatment to stop aging. Soon even the poorest will be able to stop aging. How rich will they be! Richer than anyone in the Past even Chinese Emperor Chin who put all the resources of his empire into trying to gain immortality. But do the billionaires today feel poor knowing they will age? Well yes they do when compared against future progress.

So its relative. If you look into the Past everyone feels wealthy, if you look into the future everyone feels poor. And this is always true, true for people 1000 years ago and true for people in 1000 years. You can't cure this with Capitalism and progress. We are both wealthy and poor at the same time, it just depends what you compare yourself too. Feeling rich or poor is purely relative.

So Capitalism creating more of everything is not solving the problem. Cortisol levels will continue to grow under Capitalism and people will continue to get ever more unwell as it progresses.

Perhaps the Capitalists will create a drug to compensate for increased cortisol so they can continue the economics of inequality.

But its only a plaster over the root problem. And will the Capitalists be able to bandage up the planet and all life itself that is under stress?

You can't keep avoiding the truth for ever. Capitalism is wrong at every level and needs to be dismantled.

The usual argument then is, we can't dismantle Capitalism cos we have nothing to replace it with. Well its not like any money has been spent trying to replace it. Where is the incentive for investors hungry for profits to invest in a system that will not afford them profit? Well it doesn't matter, it's all already been solved and done and this argument from Capitalists is just filibustering.

The stress free alternative to Capitalism

In the UK we have the John Lewis department store. It began life under English founder John Lewis much like any other company. But his son John Spedan Lewis ,

"On his father's death he formed the John Lewis Partnership and began distributing profits among its employees in 1929. He transferred control of the company to the employees in 1950 and resigned as chairman in 1955"

On one hand we think its good for workers to get the profit. But its much, much more important because it means that Capitalists don't get the profits and economies stops being driven for the profit and benefit of the rich. And it means that money does not constantly leak out of the economy into the pockets of a wealthy elite. This wealth money is then used to buy up things for rent which inflates prices of ordinary things like houses and so increases the money that the poor must pay the rich. The amount of money in the ordinary economy reduces causing further inflation and actually slowing the economy. Governments must then undertake "quantitative easing" to provide liquidity, but all this does is further inflate the wealth of the rich as QE us always handed to the Capitalists to prop up stock markets. The poor then have to pay raised taxes to cover this spending. Gradually Capitalism, like a disease, consumes the whole economy putting the mass into poverty.

The simple change of returning profits into the main economy again via the pockets of workers shuts down this leak and keeps the economy healthy. So the co-operative movement and mutual banking system it is far, far more than just rewarding workers. It is how an economy really works.

This also protects democracy. By stopping a super class of wealthy Capitalists from forming the wealth to buy political parties and politician is reduced. Given that all Capitalists want is protection of their wealth and further wealth leaked in their direction, once Capitalists start funding politics then the economy is forever twisted towards this destructive path. And since media is owned by the Capitalists no newspaper or book in any Capitalist funded business school will ever say what is said here.

It also protects the planet. With wealth in the hands of the workers there is a desire for growth but it is checked by other concerns like work conditions and the life of workers. Gone are the days of slave driving by profit driven capitalists with only profit figures as measures of performance. At the end of the day profit is of little interest to ordinary people. Since they spend much of their lives at work, whether work is enjoyable is of equal importance and for consumers good value and quality are far more important than profit. Profit only actually matters to Capitalists. Without the drive for profit pressure on resources and the planet is automatically reduced.

American are well aware of the co-operative movement because it is the core of George Bailey's business in "It's a Wonderful Life" which used to screen at Christmas time in the US. The business side of the film is a battle between a cooperative Building and Loan and a Capitalist bank. Obviously the wealthy hate the poor joining mutuals because they end up paying no interest and furthermore that interest does not make them even richer (namely Capitalism). Capitalists will do anything to discredit and destroy Mutuals as we see in the film. But obviously a collective fund that pools money to enable complex purchases like house building leverages the power of the collective to benefit everyone in the collective. No one outside the collective is able to exploit the people in the collective and the people in the collective enjoy all the benefits. This type of mutual reinforcing of benefit encourages people to remain loyal to the system because they can see the immediate benefits of supporting it. And everyone in a mutual benefits equally. It is the perfect economy. But US Capitalists have spent billions brainwashing people, and even more bombing people to make sure that Capitalism, and stress, is the only option we have. 

So the alternative has always been there from before even the start of US Capitalism. But unscrupulous US Capitalists have worked tirelessly to brainwash  the West to accept giving them vast amounts of money effectively for free (risk is minimal for top Capitalists, and is underwritten by the tax payer and corrupt politicians in bailouts these days too).