Posted Aug 03, 2018 by Michael L. Brown

It’s true that socialist Bernie Sanders is anything but a millennial. And it’s true that socialism was popular long before any millennials were born. But there’s no doubt that socialism is becoming increasingly popular among young people today. Why?

According to the Daily Caller, “Young people view socialism as more attractive than older people. Of people ages 18-29, 55 percent considered socialism favorably compared to other age groups, according to a 2016 Gallup poll. Only 37 percent of people between the ages 30 and 49 viewed socialism as positive. 27% percent of people between 50 and 64 years old thought of socialism positively.”

So, millennials, especially younger millennials, have a very favorable view of socialism. But do they – or most of us – even know what it is?

Prof. Jay Richards offers this helpful primer.

“Marx and his disciples claimed that ‘capitalism’ must give way to ‘socialism,’ where private property would be abolished and an all-powerful state would own everything on behalf of the people. That’s what Marx meant by the word socialism, and that’s the main dictionary definition.

“This was only supposed to be a stage, though, not the end of all our strivings. At some point, under socialism, people would lose their silly fondness for property, family, religion, and other evils. A ‘new socialist man’ would emerge and then the state would ‘wither away.’ Everyone would enjoy peace, prosperity, and the brotherhood of man. Marx and his acolytes called that final, stateless paradise ‘communism.’”

And how has that vision worked itself out in history?

Prof. Richards states: “Here’s the point: Those regimes led by mass murderers with their gulags, death camps, man-made famines and killing fields were socialist. That’s not slander. It’s what these countries called themselves. USSR stood for the ‘Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.’

“You gotta break millions of eggs with socialism to make the communist omelet. Socialism, you might say, was the necessary evil to reach the bliss where no state would be necessary.”

Yet the lure of socialism continues, getting stronger in the last few years, especially among American youth. Why?

Here are three simple reasons.

1) Young people want “equality.” The word “equality” has become almost sacred to the younger generation, and in many ways, that’s a good thing. They want a level playing field. They want everyone treated fairly. They want to leave behind our discriminatory, racist past. All that is positive.

Unfortunately, there is often a passion for equality that is not based on realism (or function, as in all the talk about “marriage equality,” where sex differences are blurred).

The fact is that life is not always fair. There are winners and losers. And some people work harder than others, because of which they succeed more.

That success is well-deserved and should be appreciated. But all too often today, success through hard work is scorned.

Question: “Why should you have more than I do?”

Answer: “Because I worked hard for it.”

Response: “But that’s not fair.”

Socialism, then, is the fix!

2) Young people today have a deep sense of entitlement. Conservapedia.com defines the entitlement mentality as “a state of mind in which an individual comes to believe that privileges are instead rights, and that they are to be expected as a matter of course.”

I am owed a free lunch, and it’s got to be a good lunch too. The lunch of my choosing. I deserve it.

As explained by Dr. John Townsend in his book The Entitlement Cure, “Entitlement is the belief that I am exempt from responsibility and I am owed special treatment. Entitlement is: The man who thinks he is above all the rules. The woman who feels mistreated and needs others to make it up to her.”

This dangerous attitude is crippling a whole generation. As expressed by Kate S. Rourke in her article, “You Owe Me: Examining a Generation of Entitlement,” “Children in the most recent generation of adults born between 1982 and 1995, known as ‘Generation Y,’ were raised to believe that it is their right to have everything given to them more than any other previous generation.”

Socialism plays right into this mindset, especially the fuzzy, idealized, quite-unrealistic socialism being put forward today: “We all get our free lunch!”

Unfortunately, that can only happen when the government owns all the lunches. Do young people understand this?

3) Young socialists haven’t done the math. The obvious question is this: “If you’re getting a free lunch – no, if we’re all getting a free lunch – who’s paying for it?”

The immediate, thoughtless answer is: “The government!”

And that leads to the real question: “Who’s paying the government?”

The answer is as painful as it is obvious: “You are!”

As one news commentator suggested, there’s no reason to wait for the government to become socialist. Just start paying more taxes today and do your part. Right!

Do you remember the viral video clip where a young Florida woman, Peggy Joseph, was ecstatic after hearing candidate Barack Obama speak in 2008? She said, “I won’t have to worry about puttin’ gas in my car, I won’t have to worry about payin’ my mortgage.” Obama will take care of it!

Six years later, working as a nurse and the suburban mom of four kids, she was asked by filmmaker Joel Gilbert, “Did Obama pay for your mortgage and did he pay for your gas?” 

She laughed and replied, “Absolutely not! Mortgage got worse and gas prices got higher … At that time we needed a change but a change for the better not the worse.”

When I asked my assistant Dylan, himself in his early 30’s and the married father of four, why he thought so many young people were into socialism, he answered, “Perhaps because of being so absorbed with social media that they’re used to soundbite answers and haven’t thought it through.”

Or, as Jay Richards stated, “Too many of us are still clueless about socialism and communism. I blame biased media and fuzzy thinking.”

The bottom line is that most young proponents of socialism simply haven’t done the math. Had they done so, they’d start working the capitalist system a little harder. They would find it far more rewarding than socialism.

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texasaggie posted a comment · Aug 04, 2018
I would like to add to biblical points to this also that, if followed, would rule out socialism. Two of the ten commandments directly relate: "Don't covet other people's stuff", and "Don't steal other people's stuff". Some other ones from the Bible apply too: There is freedom in the Lord - that is spiritual but manifests physically too, with God, but is absent in socialism. Freedom won't work without God, as George Washington and other founders said. There is a Bible parable where the land owner hires people at different rates of pay which makes some angry but Jesus defends the landowner's right to do that. Again, a spiritual illustration that spills over into the physical. Then there is the parable of the talents where the servants who are given different amounts to watch over while the master is gone. When he returns, the ones who multiplied the talents the most were rewarded and the one who buried his one talent in the ground was rebuked and his was talent taken away, with the master saying that he could have at least lent it out for interest. I heard a short sermon from Rabbi Lapin where he described Babylon as turning humans into uniform bricks, as opposed to God's plan of Abraham who was unique like a river worn stone, with the unique individuals being more in line with God's plan for humans. God can work through freedom to give us the lessons we need as individuals while we are on this temporary earth experience. Socialism, in addition to always failing, takes away that possibility to a large degree. And people are starving in once prosperous Venezuela because of the tempting satanic doctrine of socialism.
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PC posted a comment · Aug 04, 2018
How much you wanna bet that few if any of the youngsters in the photo on this article are actually paying anything for their college education? Yet, they have all the answers, and the working people are idiots. :(
Ruth posted a comment · Aug 04, 2018
I'm not sure people really buy the idea that those who "have more" have "worked harder". In fact, that is often not really the case. Oftentimes they have been helped more - perhaps by friends of family or friends of friends. I'm reminded of one young man I know who went on dozens of job interviews, and found in one case that the job went to a woman whose father played soccer in his college days with the head of the department. It would be historically inaccurate to disregard the fact that connections and relationships often play a very large role in "who" gets the "what". The attraction of a level playing field is in part a reaction to this persistent, age-old fact of life.
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lpratt posted a comment · Aug 03, 2018
I was in education for thirty years. There has been a slow seduction towards socialism in the text books and the curriculum. There was lots of emphasis on equality, not bullying: which leaned heavily toward people who struggle with identity confusion, and social media which encourages "self-expression." Then, from 2008-2016 students who were middle schoolers to college age saw no prospect of getting a job or having a career upon completing school because we were in a recession. Prices were rising. There was no American Dream. So, an alternative to capitalism sounded good and made them think, let the government be in charge of everything so that all of us have our "fair share." Now, in order to have a socialistic state you have to have a large percentage of people who need the government to take care of you and are willing to surrender their individual liberties. So, you needs lots of immigrants, minorities who are angry and feel like they've been held back by the system, and poor people who want your help in order to make this work. Then, your companies and businesses that have money enough to pay their employees have to leave town because you need people to depend on the government, not their jobs. So, you start putting in lots of regulations to run the companies out of the country. You shut down the voice of the faith community that believes that work is honorable and believe in a God who will meet their needs because you need them to depend on the government, not God. Then, you convince the groups who live outside of societies moral norms that they too need to be free to be who they are (regardless of how perverted that might be) and we'll help put that in place. Just give us your vote. They tell you to be angry at the rich who have way too much and should give you their money to help meet your needs because covetousness is okay. So, the rich leave the country too. Then, to pay for this lunacy you raise taxes and promise free things to voters that you can't afford to give. This sounds like the Communist Manifesto.
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Perry Wharton posted a comment · Aug 03, 2018
“Marx and his disciples claimed that ‘capitalism’ must give way to ‘socialism,’ where private property would be abolished and an all-powerful state would own everything on behalf of the people. That’s what Marx meant by the word socialism, and that’s the main dictionary definition." Needs to be revised since Millennials do not believe this. They would say, private property would be regulated (not abolished) and an all-powerful state would regulate (not own) everything on behalf of the people. American socialism is a synergism of Private Capitalism regulated by Government Socialism. Something very similar to what China is doing now.