According to a new poll conducted by Harvard, a majority of Millennials reject the idea of capitalism.
It’s no surprise that a generation of people who grew up in the era of “everyone gets a trophy” reject the idea of unequal rewards based on hard work. Millennials were educated largely by public schools obsessed with the idea of fairness and afraid in some cases to let children play the game of tag.
One has to wonder if the participants responded on their iPhones.
The Washington Post published the details of the poll:
A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll showsIn an apparent rejection of the basic principles of the U.S. economy, a new poll shows that most young people do not support capitalism.The Harvard University survey, which polled young adults between ages 18 and 29, found that 51 percent of respondents do not support capitalism. Just 42 percent said they support it.It isn’t clear that the young people in the poll would prefer some alternative system, though. Just 33 percent said they supported socialism. The survey had a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.The results of the survey are difficult to interpret, pollsters noted. Capitalism can mean different things to different people, and the newest generation of voters is frustrated with the status quo, broadly speaking.All the same, that a majority of respondents in Harvard University’s survey of young adults said they do not support capitalism suggests that today’s youngest voters are more focused on the flaws of free markets.”The word ‘capitalism’ doesn’t mean what it used to,” said Zach Lustbader, a senior at Harvard involved in conducting the poll, which was published Monday. For those who grew up during the Cold War, capitalism meant freedom from the Soviet Union and other totalitarian regimes. For those who grew up more recently, capitalism has meant a financial crisis from which the global economy still hasn’t completely recovered.
In a case of perfect timing, Ed Driscoll of Instapundit recently posted a classic interview with Ayn Rand in which she is asked to explain why some people reject capitalism. It’s a little long but fascinating:
It’s ironic that a generation which enjoys more freedom, choices and convenience than any before them reject the system which made that possible.
Millennials who support Bernie Sanders seem to think a socialist America would look like Norway. The truth is that it would look more like Greece, or Detroit if you prefer an example closer to home.
The simple fact is that members of generation snowflake wouldn’t last a day in a truly socialist country.
There were no “safe spaces” in the U.S.S.R.
Featured image is a screen cap.
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