Most people think their exhaustion, anxiety, and quiet dissatisfaction are personal failures.
They think they’re unmotivated. Lazy. Bad at time management. Not ambitious enough. Not disciplined enough.
They’re wrong.
What they’re experiencing is the emotional side effect of a macroeconomic system that quietly rewired how life is lived.
From Living Systems to Economic Units
Keynesian economics was designed to stabilize economies, not to create meaningful lives. Its core assumption is simple:
constant consumption + constant growth = stability.
To make that work, human beings must behave in very specific ways:
- Spend regularly
- Work continuously
- Stay employed
- Stay productive
- Stay dependent on income
Over time, this turns people from autonomous beings into economic units whose primary purpose is to keep money circulating.
Your job is no longer a contribution.
It’s a mechanism.
Your time is no longer yours.
It’s a lever in a system.
The Invention of Permanent Urgency
One of the most damaging side effects of this system is permanent urgency.
Inflation ensures that standing still means falling behind.
Debt ensures that opting out feels impossible.
Asset inflation ensures that basic security always feels one step away.
This creates a psychological environment where:
- Rest feels irresponsible
- Slowness feels dangerous
- Reflection feels unproductive
- Contentment feels suspicious
Joy requires stillness.
Meaning requires time.
Keynesian systems erase both.
Why Nothing Ever Feels “Enough”
Even when people “succeed” under this system, something feels off.
The house is bigger.
The salary is higher.
The lifestyle looks better.
Yet satisfaction is fleeting.
That’s not a personal flaw — it’s structural.
A system built on continuous growth cannot allow lasting fulfillment, because fulfillment reduces consumption. A content human is economically inefficient.
So desire must be constantly refreshed:
- New goals
- New fears
- New benchmarks
- New comparisons
The finish line keeps moving because it has to.
Meaning Cannot Survive Infinite Growth Logic
Meaning comes from:
- Craft
- Autonomy
- Mastery
- Belonging
- Purpose beyond survival
Keynesian logic doesn’t optimize for any of these. It optimizes for:
- GDP
- Employment figures
- Consumer spending
- Market confidence
If meaning emerges, it’s accidental.
Over time, this creates a strange contradiction:
Humanity has more comfort than ever, yet less peace.
More convenience, yet less clarity.
More options, yet less agency.
The Quiet Theft of Life
Perhaps the most damaging aspect isn’t economic — it’s existential.
Life gets postponed.
“I’ll enjoy life after…”
“I’ll slow down once…”
“I’ll live properly when…”
But the system never reaches equilibrium.
There is no “after.”
There is only maintenance.
People don’t realize they’re trading their most alive years not for survival — but for system stability.
Seeing the System Breaks the Spell
This worldview chapter isn’t about proposing an alternative economic model.
It’s about seeing clearly.
Once you recognize that:
- Your exhaustion is systemic
- Your dissatisfaction is rational
- Your longing for something simpler is sane
The shame dissolves.
You stop asking, “What’s wrong with me?”
And start asking, “What kind of system requires this from everyone?”
That question is dangerous — in the best possible way.
Because once the spell breaks, autopilot ends.
And conscious living becomes possible again.