I have always considered myself a capitalist. And I believe that there is some fundamental truth to what Adam Smith said, when he proclaimed that “if everyone tries to maximise his own gain, then everybody will be better off”. This especially held true when the economy was about supplying people with basic demands, such as food, shelter, clothes, medicine, and the arts.
However, I feel like in today's economy it is hard to do something meaningful in a corporate career.
- What you are doing is such a small part of a larger process, that it is impossible to see the value that you are creating
- Your company does something that in reality nobody really needs, for example the 10,000th burger restaurant, the 10,000th fitness app, the 10,000th computer manufacturer
- Your company does something that is only helping other companies sell more, or increase profits (advertising, consulting, B2B software, etc.)
This means that our economy can be split up in 3 parts:
- The economy of what we need
- The “unnecessary” economy
- The “maintenance” economy
The economy of what we need is basically what I described earlier. Everybody has food, is healthy, has clothes, etc.
The unnecessary economy is all the things that we put on top, precisely all the things that advertising makes us believe we need.
The maintenance economy is basically everything that has to be done in order to keep the unnecessary economy growing, because if you think about it, the economy of what we need cannot grow very much, as population size is not growing (it is even shrinking in many developed countries), and because there are only so many things a human being needs, the economy of what we need can never be a driver of GDP growth in the developed countries. Hence, a state relies on the unnecessary economy to drive GDP, and the maintenance economy that comes along with it.
For me, personally, this feels extremely numbing. It feels meaningless. Why do I care if McDonalds can optimise their burger bun production to make 2% more EBITDA? Why do I care about helping a Software as a Service company gain more market share? Why do I care about creating a competitor analysis for the next “web3 marketplace for everything, man“? Why do I care about doing financial reporting for some company that's been selling skin moisturiser for 100 years?
It has exactly happened what Marx has said. Marx argued that capitalism, and the specialisation of the worker, along with the growing complexity of the economy and production, will lead to the worker becoming alien to his own work. This is precisely how I feel. Marx dreamed about a world, where it is
“possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.”
I do not want to spend the majority of my life engaging in meaningless tasks, but unfortunately, there aren't many alternatives; and I don't plan on becoming homeless, although I would certainly be interested if anyone of you has tried this.
I just want to know if you have had this feeling before, too, and if you have found a solution for yourself.