For more than 15 years, Fox News has periodically asked registered voters: “Do you think it would be a good thing or a bad thing for the United States to move away from capitalism and more toward socialism?”
In January 2009, when the U.S. economy was mired in the Great Recession, 23 percent of respondents said they believed that would be a “good thing” versus 65 percent who said that would be a “bad thing.”
By July 2010, the portion of registered voters who considered a transition from capitalism to socialism a “good thing” reached an all-time low of 18 percent, while those who considered more socialism a “bad thing” reached an all-time high of 69 percent.
Today, 38 percent of Americans, more than double the number in 2010, think it would be a “good thing” for the United States to move away from capitalism and more toward socialism.
Unsurprisingly, America’s disaffected youth is leading the socialist charge. Incredibly, 53 percent of all voters under 30, and 66 percent of Democrats under 45, want less capitalism and more socialism.
Among all Democrats, a solid majority of 55 percent champion more socialism in America.
On the other hand, 78 percent of Republicans, 75 percent of conservatives, and 75 percent of voters aged 65 and older hold the opposite view.
It bears noting that Americans are extremely divided on whether the current iteration of capitalism is working well for them. Whereas 51 percent of all voters say capitalism is working “very/somewhat well,” 49 percent think otherwise. Only 21 percent of “very liberal voters” and 28 percent of Democrats under 45 think capitalism is benefiting them.
If you are wondering why so many young Americans are willing to trade capitalism for socialism, look no further than your neighborhood public school.
For several years, public schools have been derelict in their duty of teaching students the unvarnished truth about socialism.
Unfortunately, the public education system, particularly regarding social studies, has been infiltrated by socialist sympathizers who are brainwashing vulnerable kids into believing that socialism is moral, fair, and exactly what America needs.
When I was teaching at public high schools in Illinois and South Carolina, it was obvious that most of my fellow social studies colleagues were much less concerned with teaching students the basic facts about the history of socialism than they were about teaching that socialism is the answer to all of America’s problems.
Based on one recent poll, more than half of young likely voters said their teachers and professors generally favored democratic socialist principles in the classroom.
While the broken public school system definitely deserves some of the blame for the rise in socialism among America’s youth, I think that is only half of the story.
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As mentioned earlier, nearly half of Americans think capitalism is not working well for them. This is because they are confusing crony capitalism with free-market capitalism.
Crony capitalism and free-market capitalism are extremely different and should not be conflated with one another.
Actually, crony capitalism shares much with socialism. It relies on big government, fosters the centralization of power, grants connected people and institutions special privileges, and breeds corruption. It does not efficiently allocate resources based on supply and demand, via the magic of the invisible hand. Rather, it allocates resources based on the whims of those in charge and heavily favors powerful institutions to the detriment of all others.
Such is why I can’t help but laugh when I see that more than half of imbecilic young American socialists cannot accurately define the term “socialism.”
Moreover, as the latest results from the Fox News poll show, 48 percent of all Democrats want the federal government “to leave them alone” versus “lend them a hand.”
Democratic voters, especially those under the age of 45, are suffering from a massive case of cognitive dissonance if they want the federal government to leave them to their own devices while advocating for more socialism simultaneously. Don’t they understand that those two things are incompatible?
Chris Talgo ([email protected]) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.
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