By Dr. Sawraj Singh
By increasing stress in life, capitalism has made many people mentally sick. As a matter of fact, in no other society has so much of the population suffered from mental illness as is suffering now.
Fear, anxiety and insecurity are the hallmarks of capitalism. However, contrary to popular belief, the frequency of sexual intercourse is also decreasing. We already know that capitalism has reduced the fertility rate, and in capitalist countries, this phenomenon necessitates bringing the workforce from abroad and is leading to cultural instability and social turmoil, because it is difficult to integrate alien cultures.
The real motto of capitalism is “Bigger, Better, and More,” even though it claims that it is Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. This true face of capitalism generates a lot of stress. Capitalism deliberately makes people less secure and anxious so that their adrenaline keeps pouring and they try to remain very productive. There is a mistaken belief that if people become more secure and stable, then they will become complacent and less productive. Therefore, they have to be kept on the edge. However, this misguided approach has taken a very heavy toll on people’s mental health. People are unable to cope with the tremendous stress generated in the capitalist society, resulting in fear, anxiety and insecurity.
Capitalism projected and promoted women mostly as sex objects and commercialized sex, which was seen as an escape from the stress, monotony and boredom of the people who were being deprived of their creative aspect and were being limited to their productive aspects only. However, a man who is completely devoid of his creativity and is limited to only productivity cannot compete with robots. Robots can easily beat humans in that they can work much longer hours without getting tired, they are mechanically more efficient and can easily beat humans in precision and accuracy. Many labor-intensive jobs may soon be replaced by robotic technology. This will further increase stress on the already stressed people. This will make a bad situation worse. Not only is this increasing stress and mental disease in people, but it is also affecting their sexual activity.
This came as a big surprise to me that the sexual activity is decreasing in the capitalist countries:
According to research, Americans were having sex on average nine fewer times per year in the early 2010s compared to the late 1990s: from 62 times a year to 53, a 15% drop (Twenge et al). The declines were similar across gender, race, region, educational level and work status, with married people reporting the most significant drops.
In 2013, the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal) found that British people between ages 16 and 44 had sex just under five times per month. This was a drop from the previous survey, which was released in 2000, where men had sex 6.2 times a month, and women had sex 6.3 times.
In 2014, the Australian National Survey of Sexual Activity showed that people in heterosexual relationships were having sex 1.4 times per week (on average); this was down from 1.8 times 10 years earlier.
According to the Japan Family Planning Association (JFPA), 46% of women and 25% of men between the ages of 16 and 25 “despise sexual contact.”
Destatis, the National Statistics Office of Germany, is projecting a population decline of more than 10% (almost ten million people) over about the next 40 years:
2016: 81 million
2060: between 67 and 73.1 million (variation based upon future immigration trends)
According to the Japanese Health Ministry, Japan’s population is going to be reduced by about one-third over about the next fifty years, and more than fifty percent in about one hundred years:
2015: 127 million
2065: 88 million
2115: 51 million
Impotence is becoming a very big problem worldwide. The young people face this problem mostly as a result of stress, which leads to psychogenic impotence. Drugs and addiction are also pushing young people toward this ailment. After talking to some experts in Punjab who deal with this problem, I got the impression that almost 30% of young men in Punjab are suffering from it. The other causes of impotence are diseases like Diabetes and hypertension (high blood pressure). In diabetics, it can be the result of nerve damage and decreased blood flow, and in hypertension it can be the result of medications taken to control the high blood pressure. Stress and an unhealthy lifestyle caused by capitalism have also greatly increased the incidence of these diseases.
Fertility rate in the capitalist countries have been declining. Fertility rate is the number of live births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44, as opposed to birth rate, which is the number of live births per 1,000 population per year. The fertility rate is a more accurate indicator of women’s fertility.
Replacement fertility rate is the total fertility rate at which women give enoough babies to sustain population levels. A minimum of about 2.1 is needed to maintain a stable population. However, in many capitalist countries, it is below 2.0, resulting in an actual decline of population and necessitating immigration from other countries, particularly the third world countries. However, these immigrants are facing great difficulty in being integrated with the mainstream because of cultural, ethical and religious differences. This is resulting in social instability and turmoil, which makes a bad situation worse.
The remedies of capitalism to infertility, such as assisted reproductive technology (ART) like In-vitro fertilization (IVF), can create their own problems. For example, people who are past their reproductive age are using these technologies. This can create many social problems. People are becoming parents in their sixties or even their seventies! How will these parents raise their children normally? The life expectancy in many countries is in the late seventies or early eighties. When these children will be in their teens, their parents will be ready to depart from this world. Even if the parents do not die, many of them will not have the energy to keep up with energetic teenagers or youth. Like many other unnatural things which capitalist technology has created, the unnatural parents will further lead to social imbalance and instability. Eventually, capitalism will lead to complete chaos and anarchy in the world if it is lucky enough to survive the most destructive Third World War, which capitalism is working hard to start.
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].
