Question: Do you think that capitalism has corrupted the minds of the youth negatively?

Ben Kenward answered on 17 Jun 2017:

Personally I do think there are lots of problems with capitalism and I do think this impacts people’s mental health in all kinds of ways. I have to try and stay scientific here but it’s hard not to get a little bit political. One example is the effect of advertising. Capitalism does lead to lots of things being produced that then have to be sold, so demand has to be created by advertising. There is good scientific evidence that many of the objects that people buy don’t increase their well-being. For example, one nice study showed that if you give people some money and ask them to spend in on themselves or other people, the people who spent money on others were more satisfied afterwards. So we have advertising creating demand for things people don’t need, and also impacting people negatively in other ways. One example is the fact that many models in advertising have unrealistically shaped bodies, and this means young women get the idea that they should look in a way that isn’t realistic or healthy, and this can create negative mental health, in the worst cases contributing to illnesses such as anorexia. These are just some of the ways that capitalism isn’t good for mental health. But to be balanced, obviously capitalism has done some useful things for us as well! But I’ll be honest, I’d prefer a planned economy. Sorry for injecting some propaganda in there!