Yves here. Richard Murphy sets forth the extent to which disability in the UK is due to poor mental health, as in a lot. Jonathan Haidt has argued that the significant rise in the use of antidepressants is due to societal factors, such as atomization. Murphy extends the argument by connecting it to neoliberalism.
The bad health impacts of neoliberalism go beyond mental health. We have pointed out that highly unequal societies are sicker and impose health costs even on the rich (among other things, stress over maintaining one’s position in a highly stratified status ladder, combined with the fact that the loss of that perch usually results in a big fall).
By Richard Murphy, Professor of Accounting Practice at Sheffield University Management School and a director of the Corporate Accountability Network. Originally published at Funding the Future
As the Guardian notes this morning:
More than half of the increase in disability benefits is due to more mental health claims, according to research.
They added:
Whereas in 2002, mental health or behavioural problems were the main condition for 25% of claimants, it had risen to 40% by 2019 and has accelerated further since Covid-19. In 2024, the proportion of those receiving disability benefits whose main condition was a mental or behavioural problem had reached 44% (some 3.3% of the working-age population). It means that “55% of the post-pandemic rise in disability benefits can be accounted for by claims primarily for mental health”, [a new report from] the IFS report states.
That Covid and its aftermath have created such a situation is hardly surprising. It disrupted almost every aspect of life, and made life for everyone harder. This had a particular impact on those who rely on routines, support, and networks of dependency to get through life. These were disrupted. The residual fear that they might be so again is, in itself, deeply disabling. I am not surprised that permanent harm has arisen.
Covid, by itself, is not, however, sufficient to explain this change. Many in our society are increasingly aware that our economy essentially exists to exploit them. It deliberately promotes inequality, exploitation of the most vulnerable through abusive employment practices, and the straightforward sucking of funds from those least well off by excessive charges for interest and rent. At the same time, it rubs the noses of the majority in the excesses of the wealthy through a continual stream of advertising for products that we are meant to aspire to own but which most will never do because the economy is set up to guarantee that we cannot.
Is it surprising that mental ill health has risen in that case? How are people meant to be resilient in the face of such deliberate systemic abuse that is actually promoted by the chosen politics of all the major parties in the country, leaving people feeling hopeless about the prospect of change?
The surprise should not be that so many are off sick, unable to work. The surprise should be that so many hang on, somehow. That is what is impressive and worthy of note. In the face of the enormous adversity that many millions face in this country, which very few politicians seem to have the slightest inkling of either understanding or wanting to do anything about, somehow life goes on, despite the cost to people of simply trying to make ends meet. This is indication of quite exceptional resilience. At the same time, it suggests we may be tottering on the edge of a system that is very close to failing, altogether.
All pervasive neoliberalism and a healthy population are incompatible. It is really that simple.
So, what are politicians going to do about that? Apart from reintroducing workhouses, that is?
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Yep. My “resilience” collapsed when I was a whistle blower on a boss who exhibited all the behaviour of a sociopath. I worked on and off for quite a few years after that but the writing was on the wall.
Since around 2021 long covid and poor mental health means I primarily care for elderly mother. These days you know when the largest wave of covid or pneumonia is rampant by seeing the local supermarkets being totally and grossly understaffed. They were last week and hey presto I had major covid flare-up and mum is on antibiotics as of yesterday.
Sir Keir thinks I’m a drain on society (never drawn any of the state benefits available to me in my life but I’m getting close to the point where I’ll have to if this household is to keep functioning). Our suburb is on its knees and I listen to the conversations at bus-stops: everyone is itching to destroy and bury forever the Labour Party for its rank hypocrisy and treachery.
Also declining family formation, declining birthrates, etc.
Cost of healthcare, education, and childcare or deferring a career and losing one’s perch.
Though being a gay guy with no desire to pass on my genes, I’d always prided myself on trying to help research population quality of life, to try to make things better for the next generation.
These days I don’t GAF. My nephews prefer crap on their phones to real skills to help humanity progress. So why should I try to make a better world for the next generation?
I increasingly read the “cycles of civilisation” stuff recommended by people on here: we’re about to enter a major decline and there is nothing I can do about it. So just ride the wave.
Much or most the “cycles of civilization” stuff does not fit the Collapse coming soon to a community near you. The next Collapse, new and improved and coming soon, will make most past societal collapses seem like very weak tea. Resource depletion combined with Climate Chaos, both on global scales, will make the coming Collapse most exceptional. And when something runs out and irreversibly changes for the foreseeable future — like the supply of critical resources and Climate Patterns/Weather — cyclic behavior is extremely optimistic and may only occur at much large time scales, perhaps geologic time scales. Even rhyming schemes must be stretched.
Ahhh, the the humans trying to ‘bandage’ their symptoms while the ‘root cause’ doggedly evades them?
Ponder this: how long can the Race sustain the lie of the Enlightenment, before they self-destruct in their pride? Ignoring for centuries that the soul is the central part of their created state?
It appears to me that the entire charade is melting like wax and the shock is hitting many very hard and I have compassion for them. Unfortunately, many will ‘look for Love in all the wrong places’.
What a mess!
I am extremely vague as to the “root cause” you refer to that afflicts Humankind and leads to their suffering. As you say: “the soul is the central part of their created state”. That is well and good but what is the “root cause” you refer to and how does acknowledging the soul as the central part of the created state of Humankind help feed the hungry, cloth or house the wretched, or promote health and well-being? What a mess, indeed.
If I interpret the statement correctly that root cause is a massive human arrogance that thinks our “intelligence” can re-engineer the material world to suit our desires.
My favorite representation is that Mother Nature writes the rules and Mother Nature doesn’t negotiate.
Shout out to Richard Murphy. Huge fan! You have unique ability to say something meaningful, every time, and to do it so quickly. I wish more writers and podcasters had that ability. Far too many very intelligent people, in making their point, make me feel like I’ve been run over, backed up over, and then run over again, by a book mobile. Whatever curiosity I had has been subdued or extinguished. You always leave me looking forward to the next time. Keep up the great work.
Agreed. Murphy writes succinctly and gets to the point well. His next to last sentence is perfect, and right on.
Absolutely positively agree with your take on the adverse effects of neoliberalism on mental health. The numbers speak for themselves on the impact to the lower economic classes.
Neoliberalism not only divides society into exploiters versus exploited, but it also divides the individual self into a part that exploits and a part that is exploited, both of which are necessary to survive. It looks a lot like Hobbes’s war of all against all, and it goes against the morality of what we were taught growing up.
And it permeates society from top to bottom. Just look at Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Do either of these two look mentally healthy? Trump going after our allies because he is convinced that they are exploiting us; Musk taking a chainsaw to government bureaucracies and bureaucrats because he is convinced they exploit those in the private sector. This is unhinged paranoia from the most powerful and the most wealthy individuals on the planet. Those that are in fact tremendously exploitive believe that they are the ones being exploited. How sick is that?