Millennial Myopia

When millennials are polled, we see how badly history is taught. We write frequently about the carnage and chaos wrought by communism and socialism because somebody has to.

“The University of Chicago’s GenForward Survey of Americans ages 18 to 34 finds that 62 percent think ‘we need a strong government to handle today’s complex economic problems,’ with just 35 percent saying ‘the free market can handle these problems without government being involved,'” Steve Chapman writes in Reason magazine. “Overall, 49 percent in this group hold a favorable opinion of capitalism—and 45 percent have a positive view of socialism.”

“Socialism gets higher marks than capitalism from Hispanics, Asian-Americans, and African-Americans. Sixty-one percent of Democrats take a positive view of socialism—and so do 25 percent of Republicans.” We have often argued that the words “capitalism” and “free market” should not be used interchangeably: The latter means what it says while the former is largely a creation of the author of Das Kapital.

In fact, Chapman goes on to make an interesting point that compares the generation that lived through the breakup of the Soviet Union and particularly the Cold War that preceded it with the one that didn’t. “Contrast the millennials’ opinions with those of their parents,” Chapman writes. “A survey last year found that only 26 percent of baby boomers would prefer to live in a socialist country.”

“Among young people, the figure was 44 percent.”

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