The Sickness of the New American Serfdom

Tightening Shackles on Freedom Will Distress Even More Americans (Vol. 5; Issue 50)

Hardly a day passes without news of mental health crises, loneliness epidemics, or deaths of despair. There are many underlying causes to these phenomena, the most prominent of which is the way Americans have become enslaved by hyper-capitalism.* This enslavement is a silent killer, eroding our emotional lives much like untreated hypertension causes heart attacks. The commodification of all things human runs counter to one of the basic drives identified by Carl Jung (1950/1968), namely the need to individuate.

Similar to Abraham Maslow’s (1943) belief that we humans ultimately seek self-actualization, Jung thought we strive throughout life to find and enact our individual uniquenesses. Ideally, you learn to identify your basic desires, and then live a life consonant with them. Jacques Lacan (1960) elevates the concept still further, insisting you must:

never cede your desire (ne pas ceder sur son désir).

Such aspirations are hopefully matched by a devotion to caring for others. It becomes a lifelong balancing act. The Lithuanian/French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas (2003) proposes an ethical system that emphasizes the other, directly contradicting Lacan. But again, one can find integration through assimilating the two virtues.

The hyper-capitalism of our era completely disrupts these pursuits. Once you enter adulthood at age 18, major corporations, whose power literally exceeds that of the government, begin their exploitation. It is hard to find a realm free of their control. You develop a love for denim, for example, but was it your original passion or did the Levi corporation implant the desire in you? You discovered an interest in painting in high school, but will your parents, your counselors, or society at large encourage the interest?

Although the idea of studying business only emerged in the early 1900s, by the 1980s it had become the most popular undergraduate major in the United States. The fact that more than a quarter of all college students chose that major validates the subtle invasiveness of hyper-capitalism. Forget about living a life true to self and other; it’s all about making money now. Some still pursued studies in disciplines encouraging introspection and ethics as the 20th century drew to a close. But interest in fields other than business, or science-technology-engineering-mathematics (STEM), has since rapidly declined. By 2023, only 53 percent of Americans read even one book a year.

Let’s say that the hypothetical 18-year-old pursued his interest in painting, studying at a fine arts college like the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). He may obtain work in his chosen field at an advertising agency or pursue an advanced degree in architecture. Or, he may not. It is quite possible, even likely, that he will have to obtain training in another field, perhaps computer science, to find work.

In all likelihood, then, the young man’s path will veer from one of a potentially free person to the equivalent of a serf or a sharecropper. The enslavement will occur, mostly, because of the ever-increasing cost of living in a world run by major corporations. He will have to pay for any post-high-school education. Educational institutions will, therefore, exploit him, followed by the banking industry that will oversee his student loans and credit card debt. If he marries and has children, the costs of childcare will almost certainly equal or exceed his or his partner’s annual income.

Screaming from the headlines lately, health insurance companies will require increasingly high premiums from him. No more subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, and how much longer will the word “affordable” even apply? Any coverage will come with high deductibles, equally high co-pays, or no prescription coverage. Meanwhile, the construction industry creates overpriced housing, massive agriculture companies produce overpriced food sold in Amazon-controlled stores, and even streaming services for entertainment will sap his income, leaving him in ever-increasing debt.

Any young people who dare to stand tall in the pursuit of their true desires will instead find themselves yanked up by their feet and hung upside down. For the rest of their lives, corporations shake them until all their coins slip out of their pockets and their health deteriorates. Their life pathways become bent. The artist who turns to business may well meet a less-than-good-enough life partner. The physician who spent year after grueling year in medical school and residency ends up living paycheck to paycheck while executives running health corporations earn millions. Anyone fortunate enough to buy property becomes enslaved not only by mortgages, but by property taxes and insurance.

It is hardly surprising, then, that income inequality in America has never been worse. The top 20 percent of earners make 52 percent of the income; the bottom earners receive just 3.1 percent. Along these same lines, the top 10 percent of households hold roughly 70 percent of the wealth, while the bottom 50 percent own a tiny fraction. In 1978, the ratio of CEO pay to a typical worker’s was 31 to 1. By 2023, it had expanded to 300 to 1.

Why have we invited CEOs and entrepreneurs to become billionaires, only to have them hide from the rest of us in fenced-in, surveillance-camera-observed, security-guard-patrolled compounds?

Why do we tolerate such rampant exploitation?

Because other corporations create ubiquitous screen addictions, which, in turn, hypnotize us with YouTube videos, TikTok stories, and news feeds. They distract. In the late 1st or 2nd century, the Roman poet Juvenal (100/1940) criticized the Roman populace for ignoring decreases in civil rights and accepting instead "bread and circuses.” The circuses still continue, some 1,800 years later, but why do we ignore the rising costs of “bread”?

The answer lies in the unprecedented levels of denial into which we fall. The types of media just noted have a strong gravitational pull: They drag people into isolated silos. Immersed in internet gaming (or gambling), fast fashion, reality TV, stupid animal videos, celebrity Instagram feeds, and the like, they ignore the reality of their exploitation. The billionaires silently laugh while defrauding the global populace.

Karl Marx (1844/1988), anything but an enemy of capitalism, predicted that hyper-capitalism, if left unchecked, would lead to repeated revolutions. If the American populace were not so anesthetized, revolution would be imminent. Marx’s ideas, horribly and inaccurately applied thus far, actually call for governmental containment of free markets. He was, in truth, more socialist than communist. We need just such governmental management. Many basic services, already provided as a right of citizenship in many EU countries, come at a crippling cost to us: higher education, childcare, public transportation, and housing, to name just a few.

These should all be a right of citizenship. Of course, governments can also be corrupt and inefficient. Competent oversight would be required. Still, it would work better by removing a profit motive. A fair and balanced taxation system would easily pay for these basic rights. What we have, instead, is a situation in which the wealthy contribute little to the country that helped enrich them. What a perversion to have anyone’s net worth exceed a billion dollars. And, in case a billion shows insufficient depravity, the Tesla corporation just approved a $1 trillion annual salary for Elon Musk. No amount of brilliance, even one creating innovative businesses and thousands of jobs, deserves more compensation than the GDP of many countries. It is villainous.

Without instituting a fairer social democratic system, we can only expect further deterioration of the public's physical and mental health. It will manifest as increased violence towards self, taking form in suicidal depression; it will manifest as increased violence towards others, taking form in ever more frequent mass shootings. Stultifying that basic drive towards individuation and self-actualization infuriates. And, repressed rage must find a vent. As noted, the public remains, thus far, too stupefied for revolution. We can only hope that, if and when people awaken, their fury will be channeled through peaceful, democratic means. Only then can the flagrant inequality plaguing the nation lessen, and the overall welfare of Americans improve.

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*Also known as late-stage capitalism, hyper-capitalism refers to an extreme form of capitalism where profit and commercial interests commodify nearly every aspect of life. It is characterized by extreme deregulation, vast inequality, and the commercialization of culture. Basic needs like healthcare, education, and social interaction are commodified, inviting corporations to gain ever-increasing power. They, in turn, drive societal values towards relentless consumption and wealth accumulation.

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References

Jung, C. G. (1950/1968). A study in the process of individuation. In H. Read, M. Fordham, & G. Adler (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.; Vol. 9, pt. 1, pp. 290–354). Princeton University Press.

Juvenal. (100/1940). Satire X (G. G. Ramsay, Trans.). In Juvenal and Persius (pp. 195-217). Harvard University Press.

Lacan, J. (1960). The seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book IV: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis. Trans. D. Porter. New York, NY: Norton.

Levinas, E. (2003). Humanism of the Other. Trans. N. Poller. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Marx, K. (1844/1988). Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. M. Milligan (Trans.). New York: Prometheus.

Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346