Her fingers move furiously. “Capitalism is the cause of all our problems in America!”
She smashes the send button on her $1,200 iPhone posting to her free Twitter account.
Instantly, all of her followers can see it, and she can instantly communicate with her friends.
Then she returns to eating her $7 sandwich, bag of chips, and Diet Coke — a luxury that could not even be imagined by billions of other people around the world.
Do you see the irony?
- The free market provides the ability to have a $1,200 iPhone.
- The free market creates her opportunity to enjoy a sandwich.
- The free market built the system which allows her to be in constant contact with her friends.
Yet, this is the mindset of many young people today.
According to a 2019 Gallup Poll, socialism is as popular with young people as capitalism.1 And in a poll from just last year, 54% of 18-24 year-olds reported that they had a negative view of capitalism. Only 42% said they have a positive view.2
Why do young people in America, who have benefited more than almost anyone else, despise “capitalism”? Free market capitalism simply allows individuals to produce goods and services and compete with one another to make a profit. It’s a win for everyone: consumers get better quality products and services, and business owners and service providers are paid whatever the consumer is willing to pay. And, since there are multiple options (no monopoly), people have both fairer prices and expanded opportunity to prosper.
So why is the free market demeaned as “capitalism”?
I propose two primary reasons here, though I am sure there are others:
First, federal requirements on education and the left-leaning teachers and professors infiltrating American schools and colleges are pushing a blatant hatred for the free market, which they love to call “capitalism.”
There’s no doubt that progressive ideology is oozing into our education system.
School boards and college administrators across the country forcing Critical Race Theory, sexually explicit content, collectivism, and in some cases blatant Marxism, into curriculum.
It’s no wonder that 50% of 18-24 year-olds have a favorable view of socialism when it is actively taught as a kind and compassionate system, while the free market is portrayed as selfish.3
The second reason “capitalism” is demeaned is that many young people are left without any understanding of the free market and the myriad benefits they enjoy from it every day.
In a poll of 1,000 college students, 45% defined capitalism as “an economic system in which corporations utilize grants, special tax breaks, political connections, and special rules that favor them over competitors to earn profits.” 4
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), a self-professed “democratic socialist,” tweeted earlier this year: “Capitalism is a system that prioritizes profit at any & all human/enviro cost.”
That’s not capitalism — it’s cronyism.
It’s big government interfering with the free market and using your tax dollars to harm your ability to make a livelihood. It is, by definition, socialism.
If college students think that’s capitalism, of course they don’t like it!
In reality, capitalism is a system which encourages innovation through competition in a free market and allows private ownership and individual success. It also provides equality, because people are free to work hard and climb the ladder of success. It provides more services and better quality products, because competition incentivizes businesses and individuals to be creative and deliver their goods with excellence.
No system is perfect, but choosing an economic system that promotes freedom will always be better for the people who must actually work and earn a living under it.
It’s essential that young people know the truth about the free market and how it supports the best things our society has given us.
1. https://news.gallup.com/poll/268766/socialism-popular-capitalism-among-young-adults.aspx
2. https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/commentary/young-americans-increasingly-prefer-socialism-heres-how-change-their-minds
3. https://news.gallup.com/poll/268766/socialism-popular-capitalism-among-young-adults.aspx
4. https://www.newsweek.com/college-kids-dont-understand-socialism-capitalism-our-research-proves-it-opinion-1608876
