Have you ever heard the saying that “time is money”? How about “the early bird gets the worm”? The “daily grind”? What do these phrases all have in common?

They are driven by capitalism. The American Dream is known for its emphasis on labor. Through hard work and a little elbow grease, you can achieve anything.

Over time, the ideal of hard work and equal opportunity has shaped American capitalism, extending to our overall culture. Don’t get me wrong, capitalism brings opportunities that wouldn’t be possible otherwise, like the opportunity to order clothes and food from the comfort of your own home and have them delivered to your front door. 

However, we may not always recognize how it affects us. By recognizing how capitalism impacts us, we can use it to our benefit. We can choose to work with the culture or against it in a way that suits our needs and remembers the human aspect.

Two historical factors have influenced modern American capitalism: the Puritans and slavery.

The Puritans are one of the earliest societies credited to Western Culture. They played a vital role in setting up the nation’s foundational values. Sociologist Max Weber explored this in his essay, “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.”

Here, he details how the assertiveness of the Puritans, particularly Calvinists, intertwined religious beliefs and business practices.

They believed in predestination, delayed gratification and capital investment. Everyone was placed on Earth with a purpose, and the station you were born in is your calling. They viewed ambition as sinful and argued that people are meant to work the same job as their family before.

The Puritans believed you shouldn’t be frivolous with either time or money. All time should be spent working, taking any remaining time for necessary nourishment and worship.

Through this dedication to labor and religious ideals, they amassed large amounts of money, which was invested back into their businesses, growing wealth and the economy.

These practices proved efficient and established a culture of hard work and methods needed to run a profitable business: strategies that are reflected in the American dream.

Values held by Calvinists evolved during the expansion of slavery in America.

The cotton industry showed methods of maximizing profitability and efficient labor, particularly in record-keeping, organizational hierarchy and wage labor.

An article published by the New York Times, in association with the 1916 Project, titled “To Understand the Brutality of Capitalism, You Have to Start on the Plantation,” explains how aspects of capitalism are tied to slavery.

It notes that while the commodity has changed from cotton in the 19th century to oil in the 20th century, the way capitalism profits remains the same, exploiting the laborer for maximum profit.

Although working conditions have improved and laws exist to protect workers, the economy and government are reliant on labor.

The laborer is little more than a cog in the machine. Their well-being is considered, but only to ensure work is completed.

This is by no means a new practice. Nor is the idea of reducing workers to numbers on a spreadsheet, paying them low wages for gains in profit and appeasing the shareholders.

In addition to slavery establishing the base for wage labor, it established practices of record-keeping used in offices and warehouses today.

Cotton plantations fine-tuned methods of tracking productivity, profit increase, expenses, stock fluctuations, shipment and laborers’ habits. As productivity grew, businesses became more complex, employing various levels of organizational hierarchy.

Instead of lawyers and slave overseers, this has been adapted to supervisors, managers and bosses. Each level is paid based on the level of need and specialization, each with different levels of work and dedication.

The culture of the United States today is oriented toward maximizing profit, creating something known as “hustle culture.”

An article published by the BBC titled “Hustle Culture: Is This the End of Rise-and-Grind?” defines this idea.

“The hustle-culture narrative promotes the idea that there’s always something to strive for: more money to make, a better title or promotion to secure and a higher ceiling to smash.”

Hustle culture plays on the work ethic set by Protestants and incorporates business practices established in slavery. It encourages striving for more and ignoring institutionalized disparities as long as those with wealth profit.

People are unknowingly conditioned to use phrases like “time is money” and “the daily grind.” When everyone believes in the American Dream and puts aside disparities caused by capitalism, the population is motivated to work.

Hustle culture is an ideology accepted by those who work to labor in hopes of finding validation and advancing their economic status.

By recognizing capitalist culture and how it works, we can use it to our advantage. We can work in opposition to the parts that disparage others.

Ideally, the economy and the culture crafted around capitalism would be oriented in favor of the worker, but a cultural shift like this would take time to impose.

Today, we can recognize the ideology and maneuver it to fit everyone’s needs. Create a culture that recognizes injustice and encourages ways to benefit those at the bottom.

If there is one thing to take away, it’s that you can make choices to recognize the worker. Give credit to those where credit is due. Make sure to emphasize the laborers we depend on and focus on the human aspect.

The human aspect seems to be forgotten in capitalism. We need to remember that life is about working to live, not living to work.

Lederer can be reached at [email protected].