The zero-sum game of competition for money and status that has gripped societies over the past 30 years have made their publics richer overall and given them longer lives of better quality. It has led to an embarrassing wealth of consumer goods. But it is also increasingly clear that the me-first model of modern economies is a big source of unhappiness. When life feels like a cut-throat contest each one of us is encouraged to chase income and rank. In a rat race improving one’s income causes others to feel dissatisfied with theirs. One person’s pay rise is another’s psychic loss. Envy spreads despair, encouraging workers to devote more time to making money than to family or community.

Such competition weighs heavily on national wellbeing. A slice of Britain seem to be losing hope; the lives of poorer citizens are unhappier than their richer peers in ways that simply having less money cannot explain. Our story revealing that private insurers refuse policies to people suffering even mild mental health conditions shows how those who suffer could be shut out of society. Medical research shows that happier people heal quicker, worrying given measures of wellbeing show the proportions of people satisfied with their health, home and income to have fallen over the past three years.

This week the government appointed its first minister for loneliness, and it should be applauded for recognising a growing problem. Loneliness is the feeling of having inadequate social connections. It can be deadly; one study found it did more damage to health than smoking. The risk factors are growing: record numbers of middle-aged people now live alone. Local spaces that get people together have disappeared in the austerity years. Participation in sport, a marker of social bonding, has dropped. However, loneliness is a symptom; it is not the disease. That is the problem with having a minister whose remit is so circumscribed. The new minister, Tracey Crouch, will rightly look at ways of reducing emotional suffering. But she will say little about how to tackle what causes it. Britain requires a politician with clout at cabinet level to act more widely and restore community wealth and civic responsibility. There is an acute need to redefine notions of gainful work so that no longer is it just about private profit for firms.

Since the financial crash of 2008, the UK labour market has undergone a quiet transformation as companies have forgone full-time employees and filled positions with precarious posts. In the last decade 40% of jobs growth has been via self-employment. Agency work has grown by a half. There are now about 1 million workers on zero-hours contracts. Britain has record employment but at what cost to society, when employment is no longer able to support a stable life? Jobs where hours and income fluctuate can wreak havoc with benefits and childcare. They wear workers out mentally. Research last year found astoundingly that some jobs might be even worse than unemployment for one’s health: people moving into poor-quality work were found to have the highest levels of chronic stress, higher than that recorded by jobless workers. Not only has the fissuring of the workplace been bad for the health of workers, it has contributed to the weakest pay growth since the Napoleonic wars. We are boosting corporate profits and lowering consumer prices while increasing the chances of poorer workers experiencing heart disease.

This economic model needs to be recast. The neoclassical economic theory of “homo economicus” – that we are essentially selfish, that we only know our own wishes and act rationally to maximise our own utility – describes only one part of our nature. From a biological perspective, we evolved to be social creatures with relationships built on trust and cooperation. It is this side of humanity, built on empathy and compassion, that we need to encourage. Business can make money while supporting social goals, but to do so such enterprises must adhere to a set of ethical and democratic principles. To revitalise an economy without putting profits above people, Britain needs to jettison its infatuation with firms which end up a repository for risk that others must bear.