Posted on 04/27/2016 7:02:02 PM PDT by MtnClimber
A curious poll out of Harvard was published on Monday showing that 51% of people between 18 and 29 do not support capitalism.
But the curious aspect of this poll is that only 33% of respondents supported socialism. The dichotomy suggests that either most young people haven't a clue about the differernce between capitalism and socialism or, as the researchers believe, the opposition to capitalism arises out of anger at the status quo.
Washington Post:
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I was still stupid at 30.
I was really stupid when I was 18.
Give kids a chance to mature...
Most of them have yet had to support themselves...
That’s coming, pajama boys and girls....
Similarly, 51% of people between 18 and 29 do not support farming.
Because food just magically appears.
“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.”
“...more focused on the flaws....” Well DUH! With Socialist “Professors” cramming Socialist propaganda to their skulls daily, one might be surprised if they didn’t.
Let them all move to Cuba or China and we’ll talk to them in a year...
Excellent !
Might be the kids of parents that lost their jobs to H-1B visas or whose jobs went overseas.
Job offers for IT managers in Seattle use to be $110,000 plus only a few years ago. Now I've seen then go for $90,000 and under. That's not good when housing prices are through the roof.
The know-nothing generation. These are our future “leaders”? God help us.
No..it doesn’t magically appear.
Where the heck do you live??? You have to go to the grocery store and buy it. Everybody knows that. ;)
Harvard has truly become a joke.
Along with Yale, Princeton....etc....etc.......
Sigh.
They only know prosperity. They don’t know what a Soviet-style food line for some dumpy potatoes is like, or to stand in it for hours only to be told there is nothing left.
I don’t know those things from personal experience either, but I know enough history to realize we have it good. REALLY good. So many people take for granted a roof over their heads, food on the table, clothes on their backs, and a heated house.
That is more the norm of history, rather than the rich comfort we have enjoyed for a century or more.
Now, it is a failed system when you can’t have new cars, cell phones for each person in the family, the newest pair of Nikes, and a 65 inch flat panel with an Internet connection.
Sigh.
"There is nothing stupider in this country than a Bernie Sanders supporter. Nothing."
having never EARNED a dollar in their life, i'm not surprised
It’s not as easy as it looks They don’t know what the question refers to.
Nearly all will want Denmark/Sweden, not USSR/Venezuela.
Arguing against USSR is easy. Denmark: very difficult to argue with them about. It’s a different set of values.
The origination of capitalism was a mutual concern where people pooled their resources to build a means of production such as a cotton gin, a brewery, a slaughterhouse, a textile or lumber mill. Capitalism produced ‘means’ of production.
Over time, especially since the advent of the Federal Reserve central banking system, it became unnecessary for people to pool their resources as the issuance of debt became the predominant means of forming capital, and further, the recipients of the capital became members of a club.
Ask yourself do we really need Facebook? Starbucks? These are not enterprises formed by traditional capitalism. They are formed by Wall St. IPOs which in turn are subscribed to those who are given access to capital and also instructions to take capital and subscribe to the IPO. And where does the capital come from? From member banks of the Federal Reserve, ultimately from the Fed itself from funds that were created digitally at a computer.
So capitalism has many forms. There is partnership capitalism, farm-belt coop capitalism, corporate capitalism, Wall St. capitalism, etc. The form is characterized by where the capital originates.
So here is the problem. Millennials cannot celebrate capitalism as they see it because capitalism to them represents insurmountable debt and de facto slavery.
Specifically, most millennials can’t afford a home or rent because of ‘capitalism’, and they have no hope of ever affording one under ‘capitalism.’ What kind of capitalism would deny a person a roof even if said person was willing to work a lifetime for it? Is it healthy for a society to have a prospective young father and mother with two incomes, a gross income of $100,000 on the hook for a loan of say $625,000 in the city or for $350,000 in the suburbs, or $225,000 in the sticks? As the new couple learns the ropes of commuting, paying all sorts of bills and an onslaught of credit card offers (debt in waiting), they tend to put off having children while they figure out the rat race is not worth it, or their marriage is not worth it. These prospects of ‘capitalism’ are quite hard to sell.
There are alternatives. Living off the grid, living as a hermit, living in a trailer park, etc. But such living arrangements are not attractive to millennials because there are no learning opportunities. In other words, there is no promotion of the general welfare as originally meant by the founders, not as in the social welfare, but welfare as in the education of youth to learn a trade and opportunities to work and make an honest living.
The fruit of Wall St. capitalism is toxic and that which is not toxic is out of reach. The solution is to make American rich again so that basic necessities are within reach, and preceding that is to promote the means of becoming rich. If Millennials could see that such was a deal for them, they would not hesitate to avoid any system other than capitalism.
Note that ‘rich’ and ‘wealthy’ are two very different notions. The rich are susceptible to the expected ups and downs of the economic cycle whereas the wealthy are not. The idea is to make Americans rich again in opportunities to build a life for themselves, not to be shielded from life’s downside, although smart planning using insurance can smooth out the downside.
I pray that Donald Trump will inspire Americans as Ronald Reagan did to dream again of a better life and have the opportunity to work for it. In five years we should be seeing a new generation with optimism, a generation that is content with the way their life is going and knowledgeable that such a rich means of managing life can only be provided by capitalism of the right form.
They hate capitalism, but have iPhones, they hate Capitalism, but play video games in their mommy’s basements..the future of America, doesn’t look too good does it..when you see these brain washed kids being taught by Commie professors..let them spend a week, just ONE week in Venezuela, see how much they respect Capitalism then
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