Capitalism has it’s clutches on all but the most privileged participants. It’s grasp is deceptive, hidden, and maliciously greedy. The strength of the grip comes from a surprisingly simple but powerful tactic: convincing people that their material wants are their needs and then capitalizing on their actual needs. When you think about it, human needs for humbly surviving are pretty simple: food, water, shelter, and basic healthcare (mental, physical, etc.). Sadly, each need has seen massive innovation to profit off people instead of helping them prosper.

The commercial grocery business loads foods with fillers and preservatives to stretch margins as far as possible. Even worse are the producers who load their products with unhealthy sugars in an effort to get people physiologically addicted to the products at the expense of their health. Water isn’t much better, as homes and buildings are designed to maximize availability of water instead of efficiency and purity. As structures are built, utility companies intertwine themselves with building codes to ensure occupants are in position to pay as much as possible. On a similar but broader line of thought, housing has become the most sinister profit making machine of the modern era. The mortgage monster that’s the gateway to housing has been developed to charge people as much as they can possibly afford to pay. And the mortgage monster is sure to thrive once it gets its hooks in because people need shelter, and once they have a whole house full of belongings in a shelter, they’re basically stuck. Just like people who find themselves with an acute health issue who find themselves needing care from a hospital-- you’re stuck paying the hospital's exorbitant fees if you want to come out healthy.

Once you really dig in, you’ll see that the capitalization of our survival needs creates a vicious cycle . Not only does food end up being sold at a higher price than it should be, but all the ingredients to help expand margins contribute massively to health issues. Then, the capitalistic health system is incentivized to prescribe medicine that creates dependency instead of a singular solution. Of course, the cost of prescriptions are unreasonable without insurance, which you hopefully have through the job that you need to pay for your housing costs. Costs that contribute to the stress that comes from feeling like you’re on an enclosed treadmill of interest or rent payments. And that stress of being on the treadmill only makes you more susceptible to health issues. It’s a cycle that’s a sad reality for a meaningful percentage of the denizens of capitalism.

As if the capitalization of your survival needs wasn’t sinister enough, the kings and queens of capitalism have found a way to convince you that your wants are your needs. Truly, the majority of your material possessions are not things you need. Yet, at some point, you found yourself saying ‘I need a new X’ (shirt, tv, etc.). And in a twisted exploit of self worth, you may very well have thought you need those items for your emotional security. It’s how we’ve been conditioned; to look at what others find valuable based on our families, media, etc. and seek those things so that we feel valuable, too. As another consequence, there’s trope of the ghettos: ‘people buy what they want and beg for what they need’.

What’s beyond frustrating is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Capitalistic governments and municipalities spend trillions of dollars on everything but supporting people to efficiently meet their survival needs. This fact creates no shortage of ironies like the idea of the US spending enough on defense to be able give food and water to every citizen each year. 2 trillion $/yr to protect 300M people on their treadmills. It comes down to power for few instead of prosperity for all.

Sure, it’s one thing to be aware that you're on an enclosed treadmill, but it’s different feat to get off, and staying off is yet another. It comes down to being hyper aware of what you actually need instead of what you want. You’d be surprised at how clear the path off the treadmill becomes once you genuinely understand your minimum needs for living a fulfilled life.