Too many of us conflate the price of something with the value of something, forgetting that the two have vastly different meanings.

When happiness is dependent on how well our physiological needs are met, it is the most basic things in life, such as getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, and eating a healthy, well-balanced diet that make us the happiest, yet far too many of us sacrifice these things in pursuit of what we think will bring us happiness.

It’s not ‘self-care’ when you’re starving one thing to feed another, neglecting the soul’s needs to prioritise the ego’s wants.

We sit at our desks, our eyes glued to a computer screen until 4 am because we believe the lies that capitalism has fed us about money being ‘everything.’ Living on fast food because we’re too busy working/we ‘don’t have time to cook’, we starve our soul so that we can feed our ego, thinking, ‘If only I could make more money, then I would finally be happy.’ 

Why? 

Because it’s what capitalism has taught us.

Money cannot and does not buy happiness, but it does allow you the freedom to choose your own form of misery.

Capitalism has taught us to prioritise profit over everything. It’s why people spend most of their waking hours at work in a desperate pursuit to reach the ever-elusive state of happiness.

We mark the days off on a calendar like we’re inmates in prison serving a whole life order, counting down the hours until it’s 5 pm and we can log out, counting down the years until we’re 70 and we can retire, looking forward to the day that we can be human again, instead of just another cog in this money-making machine, within which we seek money over connection, and materialism over experiences, only to get to the end of our lives with nothing to show for it, our memory boxes containing little more than a few crumpled-up paychecks and out-of-date P60s.

Devoid of meaningful memories, the most tragic thing about capitalism is that we live in a world that teaches us how to make a living, but not how to make a life…