Metabolic Well-Being: economy in service of life, not of the 01s’ profit

When economists talk about “well-being”,
they usually mean income, consumption and growth.

When I talk about Metabolic Well-Being, I mean something else:

the capacity of each body, each community and each biome
to breathe, eat, sleep, move, love, think and decide
without being suffocated by debt, overwork and extractive markets.

The 01s – the 0.1% who live from the State and financial extraction –
built an economy where:

• our time is colonised by endless work and hustle;
  
  

• our attention is colonised by screens and advertising;
  
  

• our future is colonised by debt and climate collapse.
  
  

Metabolic Well-Being is my way of turning the table:

the economy becomes a metabolic system designed
to keep bodies and biomes in healthy zones,
instead of being a machine to maximise profit for the 01s.

The focus I want to light

Among many things that could be said about inequality and growth, I choose one focus:

an economy that constantly pushes bodies into chronic stress and exhaustion
is not “inefficient”; it is pathological.

Metabolic Well-Being means redesigning the economy
so that the default state of the population is
physiological and mental safety – not permanent alarm.

What I mean by “metabolic”

Metabolism is the set of processes that:

• transform energy and matter in the body,
  
  

• keep temperature, pH, glucose and oxygen in healthy ranges,
  
  

• allow us to wake, move, feel, think and sleep.
  
  

Our brains, in particular, are metabolic gluttons:

• they consume around 20% of the body’s energy at rest;
  
  

• they need stable supplies of oxygen and glucose;
  
  

• they are extremely sensitive to chronic stress and sleep disruption.
  
  

When the economy is organised around:

• precarious work with no stable schedule;
  
  

• multiple jobs just to cover basic needs;
  
  

• long commutes, noise, unsafe housing;
  
  

• permanent financial insecurity and debt,
  
  

what we call “the economy” becomes:

a chronic stress protocol
applied to millions of nervous systems at once.

This has consequences that neuroscience and public health know very well.

Chronic stress, inequality and the brain

Research on chronic stress shows that long-term exposure:

• increases cortisol and other stress hormones;
  
  

• changes the structure and function of the hippocampus, amygdala and prefrontal cortex;
  
  

• impairs memory, emotional regulation and decision-making;
  
  

• increases risk of depression, anxiety and cardiovascular disease.
  
  

Studies of financial hardship and poverty show that:

• persistent economic strain is associated with altered amygdala and hippocampal volumes;
  
  

• these changes correlate with higher emotional reactivity and vulnerability to mental disorders.
  
  

Work on economic inequality and health consistently finds that:

• more unequal societies have worse physical and mental health outcomes,
  even when average income is relatively high;
  
  

• inequality erodes social trust, increases anxiety and fuels status competition.
  
  

From a Metabolic Well-Being perspective:

inequality is not only unfair;
it is a chronic stress generator built into the economic structure.

Time, attention and metabolic zones

I often talk about zones:

• Zone 1 – normal life, with manageable tensions;
  
  

• Zone 2 – states of deep focus, creativity and flow,
  where interoception and proprioception are alive;
  
  

• Zone 3 – states of ideological or economic capture,
  where the body is hijacked by fear, burnout or addiction.
  
  

An economy oriented to 01s’ profit tends to push people into Zone 3:

• work and platforms demand constant availability;
  
  

• attention is fragmented by notifications and multitasking;
  
  

• sleep is sacrificed;
  
  

• rest becomes guilt;
  
  

• social comparison is permanent.
  
  

Neuroscience of sleep deprivation, multitasking and digital overload shows that:

• lack of sleep impairs prefrontal control, emotional regulation and learning;
  
  

• constant task-switching increases errors and mental fatigue;
  
  

• heavy social media use is linked to higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms in many adolescents.
  
  

Metabolic Well-Being asks another question:

how do we design time structures – working hours, income flows, digital rhythms –
so that the majority of the population can spend more time in Zone 2,
not trapped in Zone 3?

This includes:

• stable income floors (like DREX CIDADÃO / IMIGRANTE);
  
  

• predictable schedules;
  
  

• protected time for sleep, community and embodied practices;
  
  

• digital environments that are not built to hijack reward circuits 24/7.
  
  

Economy as circulation, not casino

Traditional macroeconomics often speaks of:

• GDP, growth, productivity,
  
  

• investments, interest rates, returns.
  
  

In Metabolic Well-Being language, I translate:

• economy is circulation – similar to blood, lymph and nerve impulses;
  
  

• money is a carrier of energy and information, not a god;
  
  

• the question is: who receives stable flows, and who lives in ischemia?
  
  

Today:

• the 01s receive massive, stable flows of interest, rents and capital gains;
  
  

• large parts of the population receive intermittent and insecure flows;
  
  

• entire biomes receive flows of pollution, extraction and dispossession.
  
  

Metabolic Well-Being demands:

• reversing priorities:
  first ensure metabolic sufficiency for bodies and biomes,
  then talk about profits and returns;
  
  

• associating financial and fiscal architecture with biocentric targets:
  regeneration of ecosystems, reduction of toxic stress,
  time for care and community.
  
  

In practice, this means:

• central banks and treasuries measuring not only inflation and growth,
  but also neuro-ecological indicators – stress, sleep, mental health, biome health;
  
  

• monetary and fiscal tools designed to stabilise these metabolisms.
  
  

From profit maximisation to metabolic thresholds

Instead of asking:

• “How can we maximise growth and profit?”
  
  

Metabolic Well-Being asks:

“What are the metabolic thresholds that must not be crossed
if we want bodies and biomes to remain viable?”

Examples of thresholds:

• limits on working hours and night shifts, based on evidence about sleep and health;
  
  

• minimum levels of income, housing, food and green space for all;
  
  

• maximum levels of pollution, noise and stress compatible with brain development in children;
  
  

• planetary boundaries for carbon, biodiversity loss, nitrogen, water.
  
  

This is close to what some ecological economists call “doughnut economics” or safe and just operating spaces:

• an inner ring of social foundations (no one below minimum needs);
  
  

• an outer ring of ecological ceilings (no one beyond planetary limits).
  
  

Metabolic Well-Being goes further by emphasising:

• the neural and emotional dimensions of these thresholds;
  
  

• the need to explicitly protect zones of fruição and deep attention (Zone 2)
  in daily life.
  
  

Draft constitutional article (in Spanish)

Artículo X – Bienestar Metabólico y Organización de la Economía

1. La economía se orientará al Bienestar Metabólico de las personas, comunidades y biomas, entendiendo éste como la capacidad de sostener en el tiempo condiciones de vida compatibles con la salud física, mental, afectiva y ecológica, de acuerdo con la evidencia científica disponible.
   
   

2. El Estado velará por que las políticas fiscales, monetarias, laborales y de protección social reduzcan los niveles de estrés crónico, precariedad e inseguridad económica, en particular cuando afecten a niñas, niños, adolescentes y otros grupos en situación de vulnerabilidad.
   
   

3. Se establecerán umbrales metabólicos mínimos y máximos para la organización del trabajo, el ingreso, el tiempo de descanso, la exposición a contaminantes y la degradación de los biomas, los cuales no podrán ser sobrepasados por razones de lucro o interés privado.
   
   

4. El Banco Central y las instituciones económicas incorporarán indicadores de salud mental, calidad del sueño, seguridad alimentaria y estado de los ecosistemas en su análisis y diseño de políticas, en coordinación con las autoridades sanitarias y ambientales.
   
   

5. La ley promoverá sistemas de renta básica, monedas metabólicas como el DREX CIDADÃO e IMIGRANTE y otras herramientas de protección social que garanticen una base de existencia material suficiente para todas las personas, reduciendo la dependencia de formas de endeudamiento y trabajo que comprometan el Bienestar Metabólico individual y colectivo.
   
   

Suggested references (up to 8, with comments – at least 3 neuroscientific)

1. McEwen, B. S., & Gianaros, P. J. (2010). “Central role of the brain in stress and adaptation: Links to socioeconomic status, health, and disease.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
   Reviews how chronic stress, especially in low socioeconomic status conditions, affects brain circuits and physical health through allostatic load. It underpins the idea that economic insecurity is a metabolic and neural burden, not just a financial one.
   
   

2. Butterworth, P. et al. (2011). “The association between financial hardship and amygdala and hippocampal volumes: A population-based study.” Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
   Shows that financial hardship is associated with structural differences in brain regions involved in emotion and memory. It supports the claim that debt and poverty literally reshape the nervous system.
   
   

3. Marmot, M. (2015). The Health Gap: The Challenge of an Unequal World. Bloomsbury._
   Summarises decades of research on social gradients in health, showing how inequality and poor working conditions produce worse health outcomes, even in rich countries. It connects economic structure with chronic stress and disease.
   
   

4. Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2009). The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. Allen Lane._
   Brings together evidence that more equal societies have lower rates of mental illness, violence and addiction. It supports the view that inequality is a systemic stressor, incompatible with Metabolic Well-Being.
   
   

5. Walker, M. (2017). Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. Scribner._
   Synthesises research on sleep and its role in memory, emotion regulation and health. It helps argue that economic structures that normalise sleep deprivation are attacking brain metabolism and cognitive capacity.
   
   

6. Sandi, C., & Haller, J. (2015). “Stress and the social brain: Behavioural effects and neurobiological mechanisms.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
   Explores how stress shapes social behaviour and how social environments influence stress responses. It supports the idea that economic organisation and workplace conditions directly impact social and emotional brain circuits.
   
   

7. Raworth, K. (2017). Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist. Chelsea Green._
   Proposes an economic model that respects ecological ceilings and social foundations. It aligns closely with the notion of metabolic thresholds for bodies and biomes.
   
   

8. Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Harvard University Press._
   Documents how returns to capital have outpaced economic growth, concentrating wealth at the top. It offers empirical backing for the idea of the 01s and their structural capture of economic flows.