Self-help wouldn’t exist without capitalism
How the self-help industry profits off of the shortcomings of our governments and what we can do about it.
It’s not surprising that the self-help industry is one that continues to grow exponentially every year. Every year, people turn to self-help literature, courses, speeches, etc in order to help them find answers to their questions of: “How can I be successful?”; “How can I be happy?”; “How can I make enough money to live?”
The self-help industry then proceeds to tell them the same lie that people in power tell them: only you can help yourself.
This messaging not only gives individuals false promises, but keeps those in power in power and continues to fund the self-help industry as a whole.
The idea that an individual is required to help themselves, circles all the way back to ideologies spouted from transcendentalists like Thoreau and Objectivists like Ayn Rand. I’m going to make a confession here that you can’t repeat to anyone else: I ate these texts up when I first read them in high school. I just need to be self-reliant in order to change my life and the world? How empowering! It wasn’t until I developed some critical thinking skills that I realized how detrimental and destructive this ideology truly is.
Not only does it create a society that is built upon selfishness, but forces people into the positions where helping themselves is the only option. There are no systems set into place to help others and to help one another. This design keeps the rich rich and the poor poor. It’s intentional.
The real answer to the questions of how to become happier, be successful, and be able to live doesn’t come from an individual, but comes from changing the systems we live in that profit off of individuals not getting any kind of help that they need. The root of these problems do not lie within an individual’s mindset, but within the suppressive inequality built within our governments.
Do you know what could help people be happier and more “successful”? Access to quality healthcare, mental healthcare, education, affordable housing, and the elimination of systems rooted in colonialism and white supremacy.
These are the things we need to change. Not our mindsets.
The mindsets promoted by the self-help industry are those meant to alienate and disempower. When people are focused on changing only themselves, they don’t focus on community or the changing of systems. This is intentional because it keeps the self-help industry and the government in business.
But, what if we started to re-think “self”-help and turn it on its head to focus instead on community health? The world would be a drastically different place if the goal of our systems wasn’t profit and was instead turned to people.
In the United States, the self-help industry was a $13.4 billion in 2022 with an estimated Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of approximately 8% in the next 10 years. Globally, it’s estimated to be a $81.6 billion industry by 2032.
Now, I want us to imagine a better world: a world where the self-help industry isn’t needed because people’s basic needs are being met.
Based off of the calculations above, it’s safe to say that the self-help industry is worth over $20 billion in the United States today, which is exactly how much it would cost to end homelessness in America.
If we’re thinking about the world, It would take about $23 billion to end world hunger.
Then there’s the fact that it’s actually free for countries to change policies surrounding housing, employment, racism, and sexism. And in the United States, it would actually save the government $450 billion a year to give everyone access to free mental and physical healthcare. That’s not even touching the $916 billion the United States spent on its military budget in 2023 alone.
But, the military-industrial complex is a topic for another day. Back to the self-help industry.
We can solve the global issues of food scarcity, housing, inequality, racism, and sexism for a fraction of the cost that we’re giving to the self-help industry every year.
But instead of self-help leaders informing you of this, they’re feeding you the lie that you shouldn’t focus beyond the self and look at these systemic issues. That all of the reasons you need help lie solely within yourself and therefore you’re the only one that can fix it. They do this because they’re the ones profiting here. They’re the ones bringing in $81 billion while you struggle to get by and spend your limited budget on another self-help book hoping it will help. If the self-help industry started telling the truth that the reason why so many people need help today is because the society of capitalism we live in today, then they wouldn’t make any money.
It’s time to stop believing this narrative. It’s time to start challenging what we’ve been told and challenge the industry itself rather than our selves.