The Guardian -Issue #1887 September 25, 2019
Capitalism and loneliness
https://bit.ly/2oD80wR
by Lauren Wilson
A recent report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) recorded an alarming statistic stating that one in four Australians are currently suffering from an episode of loneliness. The most affected groups are young people, men, people living alone, and those with young children. Another shocking statistic was that 05 percent of Australians reported feeling lonely for at least one day each week. It’s been reported that loneliness can lead to a plethora of poor health outcomes including risk of early death, physical and mental distress, and general unhappiness with life. What is causing this worrying uptick in the loneliness of our population? We should start by examining the changing social relations and material conditions of Australian society for answers.
At home
As many as half of all Australians are now experiencing mortgage or rental stress according to ME [bank] Household and Financial Comfort report, meaning they are spending over 30 percent of their net income on housing, while 51 percent of mortgage holders are worried about their levels of debt. It’s no surprise that the increasing number of people in housing stress and insecurity has left people feeling lonely and isolated, if we are worrying about where the money for rent is coming from, we are not in the frame of mind to put time and effort into relationships.
The more of our income we are forced to spend on housing, the more we must sacrifice in other areas such as healthy food, social activities and holidays. Young people are often told to give up on any kind of social life (going out with friends, travel, even buying coffee), so they can pinch every penny to save for a home in a market that will only create further financial distress. No wonder young people are feeling lonely if they are to listen to this advice. How can we expect people to endure a miserable existence in order to have secure and safe housing? On top of this we have people being forced to move further away from support networks, their workplaces, and established communities in order to afford housing while the political class tell us that we need to just work harder.
The workplace
The fundamental experience of work under capitalism as Marx recognised is the inability to control our labour which leads to alienation. Marx saw our control of our own labour as essential to our being as humans. Alienation occurs not just from the product of our labour but also from our fellow workers. This is becoming more and more apparent in Australian workplaces today. A growing number of workers are finding themselves unable to find work or are underemployed, on short-term contracts, in casual work, and in the gig economy which has forced workers to treat their colleagues as competition for a shrinking number of secure jobs and resources. It serves the ruling class to keep workers in a state of isolation, anxiety, and stress. It forces workers to increase their productivity in order to be a vital part of their organisation furthering their exploitation and viewing their fellow workers as obstacles to overcome. This is an unnatural state of being for humans as social animals and it is no surprise that as inequality, precarious work, and the cost of living grows we find that more Australians are feeling lonely and out of touch with those around them.
Technology and relationships
Capitalist technological advancements have made improvements to some areas of our lives, the internet has improved access to education and information, and has allowed us to communicate with people from around the world. The antithesis to this of course is that greater access to information has led us to be overwhelmed with a 24/7 news cycle which keeps us in a perpetual state of fear and anxiety, whilst our ability to connect with friends and strangers through social media comes with its downside too. The report by AIHW has suggested that connections forged online are “generally fragile and shallow” compared to connections made in person. The same effect can be seen across dating apps such as Tinder or Bumble which has reduced the search for a romantic partner to an online shopping type experience. This has made younger people less likely to commit to serious relationships and form genuine connections meaning more are remaining single even when desiring a relationship. Capitalism has turned the search for love and friendship into a commodity to profit from, much to the detriment of working people, especially the young.
Who benefits?
Loneliness and its associated poor health outcomes come with benefits to pharmaceutical and other companies who want to sell us the cure. This is already happening through the medicalisation of mental health treatment. Increased instances of mental distress have mental health professionals facing immense pressure to deal with the escalating demand for therapeutic treatments. Pharmaceutical intervention is often prescribed to alleviate long wait times or to try and resolve issues more “efficiently.” The rush to a pharmacological solution proves very profitable for corporations which calls into question the efficacy of these treatments as the demand for higher profit margins and access to new markets overshadow the needs of the public. An American company has even proposed the development of a pill to “cure” the feeling of loneliness showing again that capitalists will seek to exploit the latest disastrous symptoms of life under capitalism to increase shareholder value.
We are living in a society where we face growing housing and financial stress, our labour continues to be exploited, and we are becoming further alienated from the products of our labour and our fellow workers. We are struggling to form genuine relationships and friendships as more social interaction moves online and we are being told that the only possible cure is a pill!
By treating workers as mere commodities to produce value for the ruling class, capitalism atomises society and attacks any attempts to create community and solidarity amongst the exploited class. It’s important to remind ourselves and our fellow workers that feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and alienation are socially caused problems not individual or moral failings and that we require revolutionary change to create a society with much less emotional and mental distress.
Whilst fighting for this revolutionary change we can also argue for policies that can reduce the feelings of loneliness among our fellow workers – we can organise our workplaces, building comradery and solidarity while fighting for workers’ rights. We can campaign for more social housing, a 30 hour work week, job and housing security, and improved community and social services. We must get out into our communities and spread our message, argue for our cause, and connect with people who need us. It is only when we unite that we will be able to win.
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