According to a Fox article, millennials now make up the largest generation in America, and we’re seeing some troubling trends as they are increasingly turning away from capitalism and favouring socialism instead. Based on a study of over 2,000 people, nearly 45% of millennials polled said that they would prefer to live in a socialist country compared to the 42% who said they preferred a capitalist one. Another 7 percent said that the preferred living in a communist country. Oh dear. 🙁
By comparison, most baby boomers polled favor capitalism, compared to 26% who said they prefer a socialist system. Socialism never works in the long run because you eventually run out of other people’s money to spend. For a recent example we can turn to Venezuela, which has a socialist government. Venezuela’s currency has lost 99.9997% of its value in the past 6 years. In the span of a few months, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has gone from forecasting that Venezuela’s inflation rate would hit 12,875% by the end of the year to now saying that it will get to 1,000,000%. Yikes! The country’s economy is on the verge of collapse for the past year. People often struggle to find food, medicine, and other essential goods.
If socialism is better than capitalism then all the socialists should get together and redistribute their properties fairly among themselves. But that has never happened, lol. As Winston Churchill once said, “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
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Random Useless Fact:
Eating healthy can cost more money
You need to understand millenials don’t view socialism through an antiquated lens of Soviet Russia or China. They are looking at modern day examples like Canada or Scandinavian countries. People want healthcare for all citizens, equality, and a livable wage. Shame on those millenials for not wanting rich white guys to get whatever they want forever!
Those are the things the people of Venezuela wanted as well. As Liquid said, at some point you run out of other peoples’ money. And what’s with the racism? I’m not white (but I am rich). Throwing in the rich white guy slur is uncalled for.
It’s not racist nor uncalled for; it’s far more fact than fiction. The white males of the world own the most assets and earn the most money. The easiest path to wealth is to be WHAM — White Heterosexual American Male. Any other combo and you’ll face much greater barriers to entry.
Working at a fast food restaurant is not a Career and NEVER was meant to be. I know far to many people who think it is and that they should be paid a livable wage for that job. Those jobs were meant to be starter jobs and jobs for kids. If you want to work in a kids job for the rest of your life… You should get paid like a kid.
You’re living in some delusional utopia, you think Lenin told his followers that there will be massive bloodshed under his system? of course not, he sold them rainbows and unicorns. A pure socialist country doesn’t work because of government meddling and corruption and of course lazy people who will never pull their weight but gain equal outcome.
I agree with the millennials, Brad. I also want people to have affordable healthcare, and living wages. I just believe there are better ways to achieve those means than utilizing an agency which has a monopoly on the use of force.
Yeah, Liquid, as Brad said, “You need to understand!” LOL
Brad, you need to understand who has been footing the bill for most of these desired countries for much of their spending, largely their defense spending. It is pretty easy to get buy in from your citizens for socialist values when you have a much, much smaller population than the U.S., way less diversity in almost all categories, and your back is protected by the strongest military in the world – for free!
So true. The U.S. covers about 75% of the entire of cost of the military aspect of NATO. This isn’t a bipartisan issue. Even left leaning politicians like Bernie Sanders believes in his own words that, “countries of Europe should pick up more of the burden for their defense.”
What a dumb poll. There are no socialist or capitalist countries. Only countries that exist somewhere on the spectrum. At what point would you call the U.S. a socialist country? We have a social security pensions system, medical care for the elderly and for kids, unemployment insurance to pay people without a job, disability insurance for those unable to work, subsidies and price supports for food, housing subsidies for the poor, tax breaks if you had children, and even subsidies for regular old healthcare. Do you really think of the U.S. as a free market economy? At what point do we cross the brink and become “socialist” in your view? The problem with Venezuela isn’t that it is socialist. It’s that it’s poorly managed and has an non-diversified economy that depends too much on oil. They have had huge inflation run-ups with every drop in oil prices over the decades. One country doesn’t prove a point. I could just as easily point to Somalia and say, “Look at what a failure the capitalist system is! The theory of a free market economy has truly failed!” It’s a disingenuous argument. And I don’t understand the line that you “run out of… Read more »
I prefer the idea of free market over socialism. But there aren’t any places that are 100% one or the other. There are countries that are more socialist than others, but most have mixed economies. Somalia is an example of a failed state, not capitalism. Even today there are multiple states within the country fighting for power. When an individual makes dumb financial decisions, he pays for it. But when a politician borrows too much and destroy his country’s economy, he still gets full pension. Socialism may work in the short term, but it’s not sustainable because eventually an idiot will take control of a country’s finances and ruin it for generations of people. As the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said,”there is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers’ money.”
Wow, rather disappointed to read such a poorly written article. I realize that you didn’t study economics but to be so poorly informed about such elemental issues is rather embarrassing. No country is purely capitalist nor purely socialist. Perhaps the closest we can come to a totally laissez-faire capitalistic society with no regulations would be pirate infested coast of Somalia. And on the other side arguably North Korea where the state provides (or tries to) everything and there are no private rights or property, etc. All other countries exist comfortably somewhere very far away from both of those polar extremes. Those that lay the blame on ‘socialism’ for Venezuela’s ills, betray their wholesale ignorance of both Venezuela’s political dynamics and economics in general. Interesting that it is always Venezuela; never Denmark, or Sweden, or Norway, or Finland or Belgium or Canada or Switzerland, etc. And it is never mentioned that Venezuela has been run into the ground by authoritarian & even arguably, dictatorial regimes governing by diktat. Whereas in other countries that have socialist policies it is democratic institutions with checks and balances that has been the key success factor. Please feel free to submit this article to /r/badeconomics/ where… Read more »
Wow, just wow. So much wrong in your post that I just don’t know where to start.
Calling the author and suggesting that he has no idea about economics? Well let’s see how much in assets do YOU have, Robin.
You need to go out and read actual history, and not what the mainstream media is telling you.
I wonder how those Nordic countries and even Canada will fair without the privilege of having their defense budgets being subsidized by the world’s strongest military. 🙂
Disappointed with this post, it was totally one sided and written with a very biased view.
Yes, personal opinions are inherently biased. But I think it’s okay to have your own individual thoughts even if others don’t agree with you.
IMO this was the most trash post I’ve read on this blog ever, and I’ve been reading it for a looong time.
Well, have you ever read my posts about how there’s no such thing as bad debt? or that becoming debt free is a terrible goal? The comment sections under those posts were so critical of my writing they may convince someone that reading my blog could reduce their financial intelligence, lol. The internet is silly innit. 😉
This isn’t surprising because young people have been handed everything to them by their parents so they want that free ride to continue when their parents finally tell them its time to grow up, so now they want society to pay their way through life. People who think like that will get a rude awakening in life
The family unit is in large part a socialism system. But part of good parenting is teaching children the ways of capitalism so they can succeed in the real world where not everyone can live on government cheese. 🙂
“Venezuela’s currency has lost 99.9997% of its value in the past 6 years.”
So what? The American currency has lost just as much over the last 50-100-150 years. Big deal. One died fast, one died slow. Besides, it’s only fiat money, you’ll see soon enough that people can, will, and do live without it.
That’s why I invested in Bitcoin before. 🙂 And now I continue to buy gold, and real estate. All fiat money has historically lost value to hard assets over time.
This article is pure trash!
You’ve classified Democratic Socialist countries (ex: Scandinavian) in the same category as Fascist Communist (ex: Soviet, Venezuela) countries. This renders your entire article as biased.
You’ve actually discredited a very good point. I am a pro-Capitalist; but your making our side look bad. Stop-it!
45% of millennials are not aspiring to live in Venezuela!
LOL, OK Pete.
Hit a nerve, eh?
For those saying that Scandinavian countries are socialist fail to understand that their market economy is run on capitalism. There is not much government involvement when it comes to how their economy is run. Read up on it.
And here we have in Canada, where we cannot even get a damn pipeline to be built after it went through a vigorous Federal process and was approved. This is pure market intervention and it will end up hurting Canadians over the long run. THIS is what the author is talking about: government meddlment.
I didn’t mention Scandinavian countries at all in the post. Of course there are differences between Nordic countries and a South American country lol. If you are pro-capitalist, Pete, then you probably know how dangerous it can be to give too much power to the government, even if it’s a Scandinavian country. For example, the parts of Sweden’s economy that’s fundamentally based in decentralized capitalism, like its private hospitals, works very efficiently and receives nearly universal acceptance. But not so much the socialist programs like immigration policy. Sweden has taken in more refugees per capita than any other European nation. But many Swedes have started to question this choice as crime rates and extremism are on the rise. Reported rapes have skyrocketed. I don’t know if sexual crimes are related to the influx of migrants from Syria and Somalia. But the fact that the Swedish government isn’t releasing many details about the perpetrators definitely makes me suspicious. Some critics have even flat out accused the Swedish establishment, including the media, of failing to report on crime by immigrants out of political correctness and support for open borders. 60% of Swedes are concerned and want fewer refugees into their country. If… Read more »
Muh Venezuela…
Meh idiot
Good lord this article is embarrassing for it’s utter stupidity. Pure laziness on the authors part. Venezuela is a dictatorship run into the ground by bad government. As others pointed out Millennials have fallen in love with Europe and why not. I mean imagine being able to graduate from Uni with being a indentured servitude for the test of your life. Job security, vacations so on free universal healthcare.
Don’t forget the 50%+ income tax rate.
I wonder how many millennials in the U.S. have actually lived in Europe. One reason I don’t want to live there is because I value personal freedom. I don’t like being forced to pay for someone else’s social experiment. The open door policy in much of Europe robs people of their personal freedom. Socialist politicians like it because the types of immigrants they let into their country is overwhelmingly going to support them in future elections. But this creates a lot of strain on society. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3390168/Migrant-rape-fears-spread-Europe-Women-told-not-night-assaults-carried-Sweden-Finland-Germany-Austria-Switzerland-amid-warnings-gangs-ordinating-attacks.html If I want to sponsor my refugee friends with my own money then that’s my choice. I will integrate them into my community because I’m responsible for them. I’m taking that risk and paying for it. But if the government decides to let migrants move into my community, then I am forced to pay for their well being through higher taxation. I don’t get a say in who gets to come, or how much I’m willing to pay for them, but I still assume all the risk. Sweden’s personal income tax climbed 5% to 62% last year. The politicians get to live in their gated communities and don’t have to spend personal time and… Read more »
Thanks for sharing this great post. Really interesting read.