Death by capitalism
Yes, it's a real thing!
No, not for you, reading this post. You’re OK.
The back cover of my debut novel, (pictured), features the words: “Choose Life”. But, that’s not something we — the privileged writers and readers on Substack — get to do. Have to do. Who does? We just live our lives, and yes, die. But there was no choosing involved. And equally, those who die unnecessarily, don’t get to choose either.
If you are reading this, you are almost certainly not homeless; hoping for a mild winter and the shelter of shop doorway. There are circa 300,000 homeless people in the UK, alone.
If you are reading this, you are almost certainly not one of the nine million dying from famine/malnutrition each year. Yes, you read that right: nine million.
If you are reading this, you are almost certainly not living in Gaza, witnessing first hand the levelling of your home/village/town/city; the destruction of an entire country; and the genocidal killing of an entire population.
If you are reading this, you haven’t, (yet), died as a result of climate change. As I write this, we are enduring another dangerous heatwave, already surpassing 2025 temperatures - which were a record, and caused an estimated 1500 deaths in Europe alone. And that’s just “heat deaths”. Factor in wildfires and floods, and the numbers are much higher.
Is this the fault of capitalism? Yes, it is. There is more than enough wealth on the planet to solve these problems. But most of that wealth is in the hands of a few, who are driven by insatiable greed. And they are enabled by the capitalist system. A system that allows them to: buy governments; screw their workers; remove their small competitors; and rent back to us, what we made for them.
My fear is, we will continue to be apathetic until it is too late. We are never going to be given a “Choose Life” option. A simple life or death choice. So we will bumble along; living our lives; ignoring “Death by capitalism” - even though, those that die, don’t get a choice either.
How would it play out, if mankind was forced to choose? Here’s how I think it would go:
