Society of Carelessness
The opinions expressed here are solely the author's and do not reflect the opinions or beliefs of the LA Progressive.
After recognising that comprehensive care and support policies promote the well-being of society and all its members, in 2023, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 29 October as the International Day of Care and Support. This year, in the context of intensified armed conflicts and alarming levels of poverty, feminist movements face the challenge of radically transforming the society of carelessness: a system that continues to ignore the urgent needs of the most vulnerable.
We are embedded in a society of carelessness. A society in which caring for oneself, others and nature is discouraged for being too high a cost to productivity and the expansion of capitalism. If we look closely, this society is made up of the burnout economy, disinterest in public affairs and the feminisation of poverty.
On 24 October, the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights reported to the UN General Assembly how the world has been fostering “growth-obsessed societies, pressuring individuals to compete and to improve their performance.” The harshness of the effects of this framework is shocking: high levels of anxiety and depression are more a result of the frustration of unrealistic expectations than of actual chemical disorders. Ironically, the economic impacts are also negative, resulting in the loss of approximately 12 billion working days each year in the Pan American region (PAHO, 2024). For the Rapporteur, this is “the price we pay for the current focus on stimulating competition and performance.” In this framework, society is organised as if we are all competitors, ignoring the needs of our own bodies. This, which the Rapporteur calls the “burnout economy,” is the first pillar of the society of carelessness.
Growing distrust reduces social oversight of the public system and makes it easier for large corporations to have greater influence on public decisions.
The competition of all against all also has the effect of marginalising people from participation and interest in public decisions. This reduces mobilisation, participation and debate in social and political decision-making spaces, particularly regarding the State. In practice, on average, only 36.3% of the population of the 16 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean reported trusting their national government in 2022; almost 4% less than in 2008 (OECD, 2024). Growing distrust reduces social oversight of the public system and makes it easier for large corporations to have greater influence on public decisions. The effect? Common goods and spaces are controlled by market rules; individual profits are privileged; inequality increases, and people become increasingly isolated. Thus, disinterest in public affairs stands as the second pillar of the society of carelessness.
But sustaining the society of carelessness also undervalues or discourages activities that do not generate immediate income. Fundamental actions such as caring for others, cooking, cleaning or protecting the environment, although essential for life and the functioning of the economy, are culturally seen as tasks without economic value. Therefore, despite their enormous workload and the impact they have on those who carry them out, these activities are made invisible and underestimated. Globally, women are the ones who carry out more than 3/4 of unpaid care work (OXFAM, 2020), using 3.2 times more hours than men (UN), thus embodying what ECLAC (2022) calls the feminisation of poverty. At a time when projections show that by 2030 the number of care recipients will rise to 2.3 billion people, the feminisation of poverty, due to the invisibility of care, constitutes the third and final pillar of the society of carelessness.
In a world where making caring decisions is a privilege of some, the International Day of Care and Support reminds us of the importance of focusing our attention on creating "care-obsessed societies", as proposed by the Rapporteur. This implies leaving behind the limited vision that reduces the value of women and the environment to mere economic resources. Instead, we need to move towards a development model that goes beyond GDP and recognises the true value of those who sustain life in all its forms. To achieve this, care must become the heart of development, ensuring that both people and the planet thrive in a culture where caring for others, being cared for, and self-care, are the priority.