Thoughts on Capitalism from a Disability Perspective

An illness that took away my physical and cognitive capacities to work forced me to rethink how I value my life and my worth. It was relatively easy to see my worthwhile I worked to promote public health solutions to community violence. That job provided a moderate but stable and sufficient income for my family. ME/CFS took away both my income and a significant source of my sense of self. When I was bemoaning my inability to earn or contribute to society in any way, my 30-year-old colleague brought me up short by saying firmly, “That is just capitalist bullshit.” Hmm.

Like White supremacy and patriarchy, capitalism is the water we swim in and the air we breathe. For people who benefit from each of these systems, it is hard even to notice them without significant intentional effort. I am not an economist or a historian, but I do love defining my terms, so here it goes. Capitalism is an economic system in which private ownership of resources is the means for production and profit. It is characterized by free markets, accumulation of capital, financial systems that facilitate credit and debt, and a strong emphasis on economic growth (for both individuals and societies).

Here are some of the capitalist messages that I absorbed from being an American.

• Anyone from any background can make it in this country if they just work hard enough.

• People with money have demonstrated their worth in society because it shows their productivity.

• Being financially self-sufficient is everybody’s goal, and if you are not economically stable you are mooching off the hard work of others.

• The measure of a strong national economy is continuous economic growth as measured by our Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

• It is reasonable to expect every generation to be financially better off than their parents.

• Shopping is good for you and good for the country.

• Free markets allow for competition and create the greatest overall financial prosperity.

• The less you pay for an item, the better; low prices are a sign the free market is doing well and you are clever for getting a good deal.

• Laziness is a moral failing, and it is cool to brag about how much sleep you didn’t get last night.

I reject the notion that I am more important as a “human doing” than a “human being”. The Protestant work ethic and the unquestioned praise of productivity are damaging as measures of worthiness. When I stopped being able to work, was I a fundamentally different person? I didn’t FEEL like a fundamentally different person. But when I stop producing, by capitalism’s standards I am dead weight.

My friend’s comment sent me on a journey to learn more about capitalism. One of my favorite podcasts is “Scene on Radio” and coincidentally their most recent season is about Capitalism. They track the history of the emergence of capitalism and discuss how it evolved. Here are a couple of the lessons I learned from listening.

1. The wealth capitalism has created in this country has been extracted. It was generated through billions of dollars of unpaid labor by enslaved Africans and an unsustainable exploitation of Earth's resources.

2. Profit is necessary for any business to work. If you are not bringing in more money than you are spending you do not have a viable business. The danger comes from maximizing profits at the expense of everything else.

3. One of the characteristics of capitalism is that it uses money to make money rather than from labor and resources. Stockholders' profit drives decision-making rather than profits of workers or communities. Unless regulated this means that the rich can become extremely wealthy, which leads to ever-increasing inequity and wealth disparities.

The extractive capitalism that Western societies, specifically the United States, have pursued for the past 300 years will have to shift for the Earth and its people to survive. This is not to say we should throw out every aspect of capitalism. Another thing I learned on the podcast is that capitalism replaced feudalism in Europe. The transition from feudalism towards a system where commoners could earn money beyond just subsistence allowed people with disabilities to be supported by their families and not have to be turned out to be beggars. So while it’s hard to be disabled in a capitalist society, it used to be even worse. Still, this is a history in which a societal change led to better support and more equity for people with disabilities. I would love to think we can do this sort of shift again.

Living with a disability fundamentally contradicts several of the assumptions of capitalism. I do not have free will to just work harder if I want to earn more money. Because healthcare is tied to employment in the US, as soon as I am too sick to work I lose my health insurance. I am simultaneously unable to participate in the workforce and looked down upon for not being productive. Informal giving and receipt of care are unrecognized when there is not an exchange of money.

On the other hand, I think that those of us with disabilities have an advantage by being on the edge of capitalism in a way that offers us unique perspectives relative to those who are still fully in the midst of it. This is where the ideas Sage wrote about in her pieces about Community Care become so important. In a society that over-emphasizes individualism and maximizing profits, opportunities to balance our lives with more collectivism and community care are golden. As Sage wrote, disability requires reliance on the community in ways that perhaps allow us to envision ourselves, our communities, and perhaps our economy differently.

Here are some lessons I’ve learned from living with disability in a capitalist society:

• Our worth cannot be defined by our productivity or wealth

• Giving and receiving care in the context of community is essential to our well-being

• Disability is not going anywhere. People with disabilities represent 29% of the population.

• Anyone can become disabled. Sage and I were both earning living wages before we were too sick to work.

• Disability is not static. Many people go in and out of the ability to do work/care tasks. Systems of support need to be flexible; telling someone they can NOT work when they feel able to do so is almost as bad as telling someone they should work when they can’t.

• Marginalization compounds itself. Sage and I come from a White middle-class extended family that has supported us in a variety of ways. People with disabilities who have more vulnerable experiences and identities need to be at the table in designing and implementing support and resources.

• So many things in this world are out of our control. People without disabilities often hold on to the idea that they have control over their circumstances. Having a disability helps break that illusion.

The good news is that there are examples of individuals, organizations, cities, and nations that are finding ways that markets can “raise all ships” while not getting sucked into the individualistic worldview and damaging outcomes of extractive capitalism. The podcast discusses multiple examples. Increasingly you can find businesses that have a broader bottom line than JUST profits for owners and stockholders. One example is Communities in Partnership, a “community-rooted” organization in Durham NC. They are redefining social welfare through a collaborative approach that centers the expertise of people with lived experiences of racism and neighborhood disinvestment to support the self-determination of community residents. Social democracies, mostly in Europe, are examples of countries that have capitalist economies along with a strong governmental system of support for healthcare, education, poverty reduction, equality, etc. I just looked up the list of benefits that Swedish citizens with disabilities can receive. It is long and impressive.

It wasn’t until I became disabled and had a crisis of self-worth that I started to think more critically about capitalism. I do not think we should or could completely abandon capitalism, but I do think continuing to allow our country to value maximized profits over human and ecological wellness is dangerous. I don’t know how to make this shift, but I’m excited to think about it with others. Limitations (like having a disability) can be incredible drivers of creativity and innovation. People with disabilities are crucial to conversations about how to rethink our social and economic support systems.