Chloe Castillo

Conditioning of Capitalism

Most people consider themselves to have free will, believing that they come up with their

own values, their own goals, and have their own control over what they want and how they achieve

it. However, when socialization and conditioning enter the picture, it is hard to imagine having any

other goals other than the ones, for which we have been taught to strive. It may not be something

one usually thinks about, but societal conditioning is very influential in our everyday lives. As

Aldous Huxley once said, “One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them”

(234).

It is beyond fascinating to consider the ever-tight grip that capitalism has on society,

especially in the United States. Even compared to other industrial cultures globally, no one

prioritizes making money and climbing the social ladder in the way America does. The first

question a person will most commonly ask another they are meeting for the first time is: What do

you do for a living? More often than not, what occupation people find themselves working in is

what they are to other people. It's more important than a person’s origin, family background, values

and even aspects of one’s personality.

In this paper, the focus will be the conditioning of capitalism and how this in turn affects

different aspects of society. The first step towards answering this question would be to explore what

capitalism truly is, and the ultimate purpose it serves as an economic system. The next step is to

explore how this affects society socially and psychologically. Such a deep rooted system is bound to

have an intrinsic impact on the beings living within the system. Finally, this will bring us to the

environmental impact of capitalism, and all its constitutes. I will explore how such aspirations

ingrained into the minds of citizens impacts the environment, including the consumerism aspect of

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capitalism, and how countless corporations mass produce their products with the goal of

maximizing their profits. The guiding question I will use to cover each aspect is: How does

capitalism affect society economically, psychologically and environmentally?

Capitalism has been the dominant economic system in the Western Hemisphere ever since

the Roman Empire fell apart, and Feudalism along with it. It can be characterized by the private

ownership of the means of production and distribution, meaning “…governments play a minimal

role in deciding what to produce, how much to produce, and when to produce it…” (Thangavelu).

Having little government regulation creates a wide gap between the government and the economy,

which is both beneficial and consequential. This makes capitalism a free-market economy, which

refers to when “the law of supply and demand, rather than a central government, regulates

production, labor, and the marketplace” (Nickolas). The resulting gap is an incredibly important

aspect of capitalism. It ensures everyone has the “fundamental right to do with their life and

property as they please” (“Capitalism”). This right is an intrinsic freedom not seen in many other

economic systems throughout the world. In the United States, this type of system has resulted in a

society driven towards success “by way of personal ambition.” People are incentivized to be a part

of capitalism because of the possibility of being successful and potentially making their way up the

social strata. The promise of potential profit pulls people in. A well known economist, and

considered to be the father of capitalism, Adam Smith, described capitalism as “mutual agreement

and mutual benefit” (“Capitalism”). Basically, capitalism is a contract of mutual consentment

between individuals.

Capitalism goes beyond just being an economic system. It can be considered as “an entire

ideology centered around the idea of the individual's right to choose his work, his goals, and his

life's details” (“Capitalism”). At its base, it relies on the idea of a market, as well as the relationship

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between capitalists, consumers, and laborers. Any one person does not have to fit within one of

these labels, but can be a combination of any or all of them. In essence, the capitalists are the

individuals who control the capital, or the means of production. They hold a lot of power, including

the ability to control others’ lives. The consumers are individuals who consume, or buy within the

market. The laborers are the backbone of the entire system. It is an essential aspect of capitalism

that they “…work for money rather than for a part of the product [that they work to create], because

this enables them to become less invested in the product and…more detached than if they were

receiving goods rather than wages” (“Capitalism”). In other words, people work for money, and not

for a portion of the product they create. This phenomenon results in the value of the worker to be

reduced, the more specialized/specific the labor performed is, thus creating a system of reliance,

where one person could not survive without another. It also maximizes the importance of receiving

wages, and emphasizes the significance of money as a whole. Everyone works to earn as many

benefits as they can, and in turn, companies keep as many benefits for themselves as humanly

possible.

Benefits can be translated to profit, and the idea of earning a profit serves as the “key

consideration when making economic decisions” in a capitalistic society. Intrinsically, capitalism is

“an economic system in which capital, or wealth, is put to use in order to create more capital”

("Capitalism”). What this reveals is how capitalism encourages individuals, or corporations, to

manipulate their profit into more profit. The main goal of capitalism is to accumulate more wealth,

and more capital. Individuals will do everything in their power to maximize their profits. With this

desperation to increase profits comes the element of competition, which is also a characteristic of

capitalism. This aspect leads to a very efficient production of goods: “Because of the element of

competition, capitalism also results in the creation of wealth by the most cost-effective method,

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which lowers costs and prices, increases demand and production, and creates further economic

opportunities” (“Capitalism”). Capitalism has everything to do with accumulating the most material,

at the lowest cost; in other words, to be as valuable as possible. Kevin Davis, a retired teacher from

Northgate High School, taught Economics and U.S. Government, explains the “…cliche of

capitalism…” as “…the greatest good for the greatest number.” He emphasized during an interview

how, “[b]ecause of capitalism, we make more stuff, and trade more stuff, and that way everyone has

more things.” This reiterates the materialism mindset capitalism induces within society, and the

mass impact it has on the citizens within the system.

Beyond materialism, capitalism, as an economic system, reduces everything to a monetary

amount. “Everything from people to punishments to healthcare have some sort of correlation with

money” (Davis). You are what you make, or how much you make. Based on the article,

“Significance of Money,” money is the number one issue to producers in a capitalist society: “It has

enabled the producer to organize his production in a most economical manner and spared him the

botheration of barter system.” What this article is implying is that once a company has hit a point of

max profit, nothing will stand in their way to continue making that profit. They are not bothered by

anything; corporations have no other goal in mind than increasing their revenue. Additionally, the

concept of price mechanism “…also determines the share of remuneration of factors of

production… [W]ages, salaries, interest, rent and profits… are determined in monetary terms as per

the forces of demand for and supply of them” (“Significance of Money”). Corporations depend on

the laws of supply and demand for their revenues, so oftentimes, they will try and manipulate the

market itself to increase their total revenue. Davis describes how this “…takes away the human

element of why we care about each other,” which is seen in multiple aspects. A largely prominent

one is the continuously low wages of many Americans. Richard Reeves, in an article that appeared

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on The Guardian, deep dives into how “wages do not reflect the productivity of the worker, but their

power.” He describes how “[l]ower wages are a reflection of growing powerlessness [within the

working class]” (Reeves). Wages keep decreasing due to a few colliding developments. The first

one is the disappearance, or rather the growing insignificance, of unions. In the 1950s, “one in four”

workers were a part of a union, but now, “[j]ust one in 20 workers in the US private sector are

members of a trade union” (Reeves). Gradually, the capitalists have gained more power, ultimately

taking it away from the laborers.

The second development is the ever-expanding wage gap seen between classes. In reality, it

is almost predictable that the wage gap has become increasingly wider, as “[a] principle of

capitalism is to allow income and wages to be distributed by the free market” (Pettinger). With

limited government involvement in the market, it is difficult to regulate wages, especially in later

stages of capitalism where corporations may have achieved a form of monopoly power. With this

type of power, companies “…can get away with paying a wage much lower than the productivity of

the worker. Workers have no choice but to work for a very low wage. Therefore, capitalists with

access to private property can ‘exploit’ their monopoly power to make a much higher profit than

other people in society” (Pettinger). Innately, all companies aspire to get to this point; having

ultimate control over the market and being able to control the price, and thus being able to have a

semblance of control over supply and demand. Unfortunately, in reaching this point, they are

walking on the backs of their laborers, and taking money straight from their pockets: “Even if

workers can get organized, they cannot force a completely different employer to share more of their

surplus with them” (Reeves). The more money a corporation attains, the less they seem to care for

the lives of those working within the company, and the easier, as well as beneficial, it is not to. This

is solely due to the fact that in our capitalist society, money equals power. And, with power, comes

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the ability to influence policies within the government. Corporations with money have something

most politicians want, so huge companies are able to fund political campaigns in return for favors,

which more often than not, benefit the company who paid for the campaign and not the other voters,

who make up the majority.

Along the lines of this concept, the third trend involves the widespread expansion of

monopoly power. It “has become increasingly concentrated into fewer, larger companies, especially

in terms of power in the labor market” (Reeves). This essentially indicates that corporations are

becoming too powerful to the point where other firms are no longer able to compete with them,

hence increasing the control these corporations have over the entire market, instead of just their

individual firm. A substantive example of this notion is Amazon, and how rapidly it is expanding,

and as a result, how many smaller businesses have been forced to shut down: “In a 2019 survey,

three-quarters of independent retailers ranked Amazon’s dominance as a major threat to their

survival” (Knox and Mitchell). This supplies substantial evidence of how many people are worse

off because of the growing power of large corporations. Worse, the article continues to describe how

small businesses “are trapped in Amazon’s monopoly gambit…” leaving “…them little choice but

to sell on its platform. Yet doing so allows Amazon, also their competitor, to exploit and undermine

them” (Knox and Mitchell). The prominence of Amazon has resulted in small businesses having to

sell on its site, in order to sell anything, but all the while, it makes Amazon even more powerful and

able to put them out of business. It is an inescapable cycle, where ultimately, capitalism is a broken

system that will lead to fewer, but increasingly powerful corporations if not appropriately regulated

by the government.

At this point, it is clear that regulating such profitable corporations would not be ideal based

on capitalistic values. Psychologically, capitalism has warped the minds of the majority, often

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without any notice. Our society is rooted so deeply in capitalism, and a capitalist mindset that its

main ideas, such as how “…the “invisible hand” guides the market; that a division of labor exists

and should exist; and that self-interest and competition lead to wealth creation…” are all “so deeply

internalized that most of us take them for granted” (Yang). Said ‘American’ values are really the

consequence of capitalism being so extensive within the culture of the United States. Growing up

with such a competitive and unstable system has had an enormous effect on mental health. Lissa

Wenter, an AP Human Geography teacher at Las Lomas states how a friend of hers living in

Australia once commented, “Americans live to work and Australians work to live.” Americans

value money to the point where their life’s purpose becomes to work and make as much money as

possible. The idea of a job, and work as a whole, has shifted in the last millennium, and not for the

best. Wenter spent some time, during a wide-ranging interview, describing how she had spent a lot

of her younger years traveling, and specifically mentioned the main difference in culture she

noticed: “Out of all of the countries I've been to, the US definitely prioritizes money and material

goods instead of family and community unlike most other cultures.” She goes on to describe how

“[i]n Spain, people take a long ‘lunch’ and often go for a paseo, or stroll, after the main meal in the

afternoon. This is time out of the work day that Americans would never take to relax and spend time

with family and friends,” explained Wenter. This can be observed in numerous other countries

globally, not just Spain. What is unique is America, and the absence of emphasis on putting time

into building relationships and enjoying life. Instead, people continue to fight to survive within a

fragmented system.

This perspective is not a rare one. Author Ernest Mandel, in his book, Workers Under

Neo-Capitalism, writes how

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 …the trend toward deep and growing dissatisfaction of producers and consumers with a

system which forces them to lose more and more time producing and consuming more and

more commodities which give less and less satisfaction and stifle more and more basic

human needs, emotions and aspirations, the contradictions between the accumulation of

wasteful ‘wealth’ in the West and the hunger and misery of the colonial peoples, the

contradictions between the immense creative and productive potentialities of science and

automation and the destructive horror of nuclear war in the shadow of which we are forced

to live permanently, epitomize the basic contradictions of today’s capitalism. (3,4)

Principally, Mandel is relaying how capitalism affects an individual in the long run. He specifies

how the never ending dissatisfaction with the money earned leads to both consumers and producers

throwing themselves into their work in order to feel some sort of satisfaction, but in the end only

lose time working. He innately relates the effects of capitalism to its purpose, revealing its

contradictions, and thus uncovering the toll it takes on an individual.

Within capitalism, it is consumption and the monetary value of an individual’s material

goods that determine their wealth, which in turn determines an individual's social status. Wenter

points out how “most Americans equate wealth with happiness.” Specifically in America, if wealth

is what makes people happy, then one’s wealth is determined by their level of consumption. This is

significant as “[c]onsumerism… ultimately breeds dissatisfaction as the desire to substitute old

products for new ones turns maintaining one’s position in society into a relentless pursuit of an

unobtainable standard” (Matthews). Inherently, this ends with work and consumption eventually

losing their inner “content and meaning” which results in a society “characterized by emptiness &

degradation” (Matthews). Once again, there is a cycle of never having enough, and always pursuing

a standard that is not possible to achieve without immorality. At the end of the day, people will often

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choose to follow the path towards immorality, instead of being content with what they have. As

stated in the article, this makes capitalism the predominant “…determinant of poor mental health.”

David Matthews, author of “Capitalism and Mental Health,” goes further as to detail the numerical

number of mental health crises: “…more than three hundred million people suffer from depression

worldwide. Furthermore, twenty-three million are said to experience symptoms of schizophrenia,

while approximately eight hundred thousand individuals commit suicide each year” (Matthews).

Capitalism may not be the direct reason for these statistics, but it is an important correlation to be

aware of. Too many people suffer under the rule of capitalism. Moreover, chasing an unattainable

standard and always needing more materials in order to feel satisfied not only takes its toll on the

mind, but the environment as well.

It is the innate nature of capitalism itself that impacts the environment. Capitalism

encompasses the ideas of self-interest and maximizing profits, at the cost of anything. In this case,

anything happens to be the environment. Capitalism’s quick development and expansion “involved

putting growing pressure on the Earth's resources, introducing new methods and substances into the

processes of producing, using, and disposing of the worn-out remains of the things people, groups,

and societies require for their reproduction and expansion” (Sweezy). Capitalism was very

successful in the beginning, catastrophically resulting in said pressures, and new, ever efficient

processes in order to mass produce products and ultimately make a profit. The article concludes that

“[t]he indirect effects on the environment did not concern them [the capitalists]; or, if they thought

about it at all, they took for granted that whatever adverse effects their actions might have would be

easily absorbed or compensated for by nature's seemingly limitless resilience” (Sweezy). The

capacity of the Earth’s resources was not a known fact until too late, when the mindset that profits

come above everything else had already been implemented. David Barsamian, an award winning

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journalist describes how the environment is in desperate need of “…dramatic environmental policy

changes…” but that any efforts “…are stifled by capitalism and its appetite for profits”

(Barsamian). Capitalism itself, and the ideals it instills within society make it nearly impossible to

help the environment, as exploiting it is too advantageous and profitable. James Dyke goes deeper

in his article “Capitalism Needs More Than Tinkering to Save the Planet”: “…the richest, just like

the poorest, are effectively locked into a system that compels them to seek endless growth and so

the destruction of nature. Increasing concentrations of wealth, overconsumption and global warming

are features that emerge from capitalism itself.” In basic terms, the mentality capitalism encourages,

and requires, directly leads to overproduction, increased waste, and countless other unsustainable

practices. The exponential rate at which climate change is expanding is indirectly due to the impact

of capitalism on society.

It is of utmost importance for awareness of the power capitalism holds to be spread. It is an

ever-growing issue in our increasingly industrial society; capitalism has influenced our

governmental policies, to a point where they lower the standard of living, and harm the environment

at a proliferating rate. It can be an unjust system, especially with limited regulations, as observed in

the modern manifestation of capitalism seen in America. Today, we are living under the rule of

corporations without realizing it. They hold a majority of the wealth, enabling them to have indirect

control of everyone around them, especially politicians. Intrinsically, capitalism has led us to warp

our society to a point of needing dramatic change. If we continue to follow down this path, it could

be too late. Humanity can not not lose its empathy and must hold onto everything that makes us

human. Capitalism cannot continue to dehumanize the victims of the system, which is a large

majority of our population. It minimizes every being, every item, every privilege, every punishment

to a numerical value. People deserve to be more than just a monetary unit, and we must do

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everything in our power to make this reality. Capitalism itself is not at fault for these deep rooted

issues: it is how we chose to implement this system that has brought upon the effects discussed

within this paper. As a civilization, we must learn and adapt to the growing influence of capitalism.

We must recognize and acknowledge the harm in which we have wrought ourselves under this

system, and work towards a more righteous way of living within the conditioning of capitalism.

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