Nearly three-quarters of young Americans are likely to vote for a socialist candidate, a new poll reveals, suggesting capitalism has lost its appeal. But is it really capitalism when government funds all but the working class?
Young Americans view socialism much more favorably than their elders, with 70 percent likely to vote for a socialist, according to a poll released on Monday by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. The survey also found that 50 percent of millennials (aged 23 to 38) have an unfavorable view of capitalism. Only Generation Z (aged 16 to 22) was more anti-capitalist – 51 percent view the economic system negatively.
While the organization’s name betrays its spin on these statistics, its pearl-clutching takes leaves out the fact that the American system has become more and more socialist over the years, to the point where the only group that does not benefit from socialist policies is the working class. A system in which the government bails out banks, subsidizes Big Oil, and pours billions of dollars into private military contractors free to set their prices as high as they wish may not be socialist in name, but it certainly isn’t how capitalism was imagined.
Americans can’t be blamed for resenting a system that has saddled them with crippling debt, from student loans to medical bills to credit cards often maxed out in an effort to juggle the former – but any resemblance to capitalism is coincidental. Americans have socialism for the rich, while ordinary people are taught their failure to thrive in a rigged economy is their fault alone.
The 2017 Trump tax cuts further accelerated a decades-old trend of trickle-up economics, in which the wealth of working people has steadily consolidated in the hands of the .01 percent. The 500 richest families in the US now pay a lower tax rate than the working class – assuming, of course, that they pay taxes at all.
Capitalism’s defenders wax poetic about free markets, but there’s nothing free about a healthcare system in which patients are penalized for not buying in, as Obamacare was initially designed. That system has seen prices skyrocket as insurance companies are free to foist exorbitant premiums on customers who have no choice but to buy. Progressives calling for Medicare for All are merely seeking to extend the socialization of healthcare to the people who are supposed to benefit from it – the patients.
In the same way, military contractors that corner the market on certain proprietary parts are free to set their prices as high as they wish, and any lawmaker who cries foul on the ever-expanding military budget is slammed as unpatriotic. This model gives Americans hideously expensive yet barely functional “innovations” like the F-35, which costs over a trillion dollars to develop but can’t fly in the rain.
The banking sector was the beneficiary of socialism in 2008, when the government pumped $700 billion in taxpayer dollars directly into banks that had grown fat on so-called “toxic assets,” including bundles of bad mortgages from people who ended up losing their homes to foreclosure. The people didn’t get bailouts that could have kept roofs over their heads – that would be socialism!
Energy companies receive some $20 billion in taxpayer-funded subsidies every year, a 2017 report found. President Trump may boast of the US’ “energy independence,” but the companies that create that energy are thoroughly dependent on Uncle Sam to keep them afloat.
What little social safety net there is in the US benefits only the poorest of the poor, with income caps that exclude most employed people making above minimum wage. As a result, the working class – traditionally, at least in theory, the beneficiaries of socialism – is the only group that doesn’t get to enjoy its fruits in this upside-down system.
Young people are right to be disgusted with what passes for capitalism in the US. Most developed nations have figured out how to combine elements of socialism with a market economy in a way that benefits everyone – it’s time the US catches up to them.
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citing another opinion poll. sigh…
All one needs to remember, when poll results are trumpeted, are the Jay Leno clips he did, asking passersby outside the studio when he hosted the Tonight Show.
They know nothing about history, but feel compelled to wax poetic on public policy.
Opinion & assholes.
Everyone has one, but for most, especially young adults, what comes forth is repulsive.
I dont know exactly when capitalism died but we’ve had crony capitalism since the sixties and fascism since the eighties. While we haven’t had that overt Mussolini style fascist as an overlord, the merger of govt and corporations was cemented by time the eighties rolled around. When businesses and banks stand or fall on their own merit, without being too big to fail or executives to jail then, maybe then, we can call it capitalism. Most articles do a tremedous dis-service to the word capitalism by referring to it as capitalism when it certainly isn’t.
Capitalism was peaking when people rode horse and buggy!
The author makes the wide distinction between socialism and capitalism, the 1% and the 99%. Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and some other 1 percenters are calling for socialism. Why would they do that when they are going to be paying for it? They made their fortunes through capitalism, not socialism. Gary Allen explains this contradiction in his book “None Dare Call It Conspiracy” back in 1971.
Under either system the 1% will still benefit and remain the 1%.
Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and some other 1 percenters are calling for socialism.
Careful there my NON-VOTING friend. You mustn’t forget those are manufactured people.
You just named two of the biggest CIA-Corporate front men ever (with fake salaries, fake resumes, and fake net worth). Their opinions probably aren’t real either.
Follow the money not the rhetoric and the truth always comes out! Nice post.
Careful with that 1% bullshit. You are conflating 0.001% with 1%. The top 1% include the most productive people in the society – small business owners, professionals, etc. The top 1% is some 3.3 million people, and they are far different from the people you mention. They pay enormous tax, they create jobs, and they produce.
This is a good joinder(?) for our conversation from last night.
Whether it’s crony capitalism or communism, we’re just livestock being farmed. The oligarchs have all but given up on communism after finding that the mules work harder under the illusion of self determination that crony capitalism provides.
Precisely, but the illusion of self determination is indeed very powerful, and could just as easily morph into genuine self determination in the times ahead.
I get that feeling in my bones lately, that the desire for real self determination among the proverbial “3%” is not to be under estimated.
It’s also obvious to me now that the American and French revolutions largely just replaced the Church/State with the more State.
Wish I had your optimism, brother.
Correction.
USSR 2.0 Today.
https://www.exposetheenemy.com/israel-russia
The headline is bullshit and misleading. The US currently spends something like 70% of the Federal budget on welfare, and the rich are not the major recipients of those monies. Trillions of dollars are spent on welfare each year, much borrowed. The bottom half of income earners pay zero federal income tax. The Federal budget is socialism at work, and the vast majority of the expenditure does not go to the rich, no matter how you define them.
The crap about them paying lower taxes is absurd. The rich pay the lion’s share of the taxes. How much more should they pay? All of it?
The article fails to mention that the bank bailout money was largely if not entirely repaid. How much of the welfare that goes to the bottom 50% gets repaid? Not that I believe the banks should have been helped, but it is appropriate to mention the money was repaid.
The article says this: ” Progressives calling for Medicare for All are merely seeking to extend the socialization of healthcare to the people who are supposed to benefit from it – the patients.” This author is a fucking moron if that is actually believed.
The author says this: “In the same way, military contractors that corner the market on certain proprietary parts are free to set their prices as high as they wish” as though there is something wrong with that. If you create something, you are free to charge whatever the hell you want for it.
This imbecile said this above: “. The people didn’t get bailouts that could have kept roofs over their heads – that would be socialism!” Umm, actually, they fucking did. From the Balance: “The bailout also created the Making Home Affordable Program. Between 2010 and 2018, it helped nine million Americans avoid foreclosure.”
He talks about energy companies getting $20 billion. That should not happen. but out of a welfare budget of trillions a year, it is a piss in the ocean. I notice not a fucking thing was said about the trillions paid to individuals.
This moron says “What little social safety net there is in the US benefits only the poorest of the poor, with income caps that exclude most employed people making above minimum wage”. For fuck sake, I guess he never heard of SS, Medicare, etc.
Sure, corporate welfare should not be allowed. Sure, stupid defense expenditures should be eliminated. Sure, banks should be forced to stand on their own two feet, medicine should be deregulated, etc.
But this fucking imbecile does not want to acknowledge the basic truth of it – the US spends trillions a year on welfare, and very little of it goes to corporations.
The entire welfare state should be eliminated – all of it. The only appropriate place for welfare is via private donation.
” The US currently spends something like 70% of the Federal budget on welfare, and the rich are not the major recipients of those monies.”
Who, exactly, benefits from being able to effectively externalize a significant portion of their labor costs onto the backs of tax payers via welfare?
Good point. Those who are taxed to oblivion are doing it to themselves imo. Pay shit and you will pay…in taxes. Don’t pay and people starve, we end up like Venezuela, no?
AC – a great many are not employees. So that money is not being externalised. It is not the role of business to fund the lifestyle of its employees. It is its role to make profit, and it needs to pay market rates. If those rates are insufficient for the employees to live the lifestyle they want, then they withhold their labor, they can increase their skills, etc. The issue is that many, during short or even extended periods of their lives, have insufficient skills to demand good wages. And so they vote themselves free shit.
And a corollary of lower wages is lower prices. Those lower prices benefit a great many people.
This is his point. You’re shifting the costs of production onto other people, they’re still paying, but that cost is hidden in their tax bills.
There is no net benefit to anyone except the employer.
Geez, are you really that dull? The net benefit is that the companies operate in a marketplace. That society decides that it is appropriate to steal via taxes is not the fault of the Company. It is a societal decision. If up to me, people would live at the level they can support via their production, plus private welfare. And prices would be low. And incentive to work, skill up, get educated properly would be high.
“The net benefit is that the companies operate in a marketplace.”
But when they do this as parasites, not producers, it’s clearly a net economic loss to society, benefiting only the parasites, who even manage to parasitize people with no actual link to their operation at all via the tax system.
This is the penultimate ‘looting phase’ of capitalism.
“That society decides that it is appropriate to steal via taxes is not the fault of the Company.”
When the Company subverts the government to create this situation, it genuinely is literally their fault.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/04/15/report-walmart-workers-cost-taxpayers-6-2-billion-in-public-assistance/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/03/26/walmart-admits-our-profits-depend-their-poverty
If it were up to you, we would have the exact situation we are in – and we’ve noticed.
Walmart workers cost x,y,z – what a strawman. Society gives them money for free. Not Walmart. It is a public decision. Repeating the same old crap does not make it true.
Re the second link, you need to read for comprehension. Walmart services the low income. So, yes their profits somewhat depend on the govt giving out free shit to its customers so it can buy cheap shit from them.
If it were up to me there would be no govt welfare of any kind. No free shit from the govt to any entity. Welfare would be an entirely private issue. We certainly would not be in the situation we are in if it were up to me.
You really are a moron. I should know better to than to reply to an anonymous left wing retarded poster.
This is you, every time you post whatever idiotic take you have on something, and you think anon is the moron? That really is stupid.
The point of the Walmart link is that Walmart depends on the government to provide welfare to their workers.
But you know that, so you’re bullshitting people, as always.
We should know better than to engage with lying parasites.
A lot of these young dumb asses who like Bernie or AOC aren’t old enough to recognize the stench of a real Communist or Nazi – even if one kicked them in the ass for fun.
USA has NEVER had a pure capitalist economy. It has always been a mixed bag..much less of a mixed bag in the very early days…leaning more towards freedom and self reliance and much more of a mixed economy today with socialist hand-outs derived from the productive class. Young adults are commies because they are still pretty much collecting the hand-outs..from parents, extended adolescence, credit and technology. When they move into the productive class and start being milked from forward and behind….the tune changes. Always has. Always does.
sorry llpoh,
you’re wrong on this topic–
while your #s & %s are probably correct,i bet more welfare goes to the middle class & above than goes to the lower middle & working class–
the non working poor receive large amounts of welfare but those struggling to make it on their own are falling further & further behind,and the wealthiest americans are becoming wealthier b/c of government policies more than b/c of their own financial astuteness–
over the last 25 years,have the stock market or real estate markets boomed more b/c of artificially low % rates or b/c of real economic activity? who has had the ability to take advantage of these low rates,which have decimated the savings of retired people especially but also the working class?
i gather from your various postings that you’re in your late 60s to early 70s–
if you were a young man just starting out,w/no specialized education or skills but the desire to succeed & a willingness to work hard,do you believe that there was more opportunity today or 50 years ago?
the link i am posting is to the online publication imprimis,which is published monthly by hillsdale college–
it contains an article by a law professor from george mason university who writes about how americans are losing our economic mobility instead of being able to rise & fall thru our own efforts,and he then goes on to suggest how to fix the problems–
frank buckley,restoring america’s economic mobility
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/author/frankbuckley/
Tampa – there is enormous opportunity today for young people. The competition is so damn poor, that smart, hard-working young folks have an opportunity far beyond what has been available for a very long time. There is far more opportunity today for the ones that are prepared than there was fifty years ago. But overall, for most people, that would not be true. As I sometimes say, hard work, education, thrift, family values will pay off for anyone. That does not mean everyone – because so few will actually do those things. But almost universally, ANYONE who does will reap benefits. And because there are currently so few who will do those things, the opportunity is simply incredible for those that will.
Re this portion of your comment: “ i bet more welfare goes to the middle class & above than goes to the lower middle & working class“. I could care less about your bet. You have any, you know, actual facts that back that up?
Re the article, 1) it did not quote sources, 2) I have read other articles that contradict what is said re mobility (again the source was nebulous in the article you quoted), and 3) the author summed up his position thusly: “ And that points to America’s way back: acknowledge that the promise of America has diminished, then emulate Canada.” Emulate fucking Canada? For fuck sake, do you even think about what you read? That is some fucked up bullshit right there.
For instance, in this article it is claimed that 56% of the US population will at least for one year be in the top 10% of earners. That is amazing. Further, it says that 93% of all Americans earn more than their parents. Etc. A lot of what is posited out there is bullshit, including that dumbass article you posted, that has zero in the way of data attributions. Have a gander at this one, which at least has some sources listed:
Here is a key section of the article: “ To what extent do everyday Americans experience these levels of affluence, at least some of the time? In order to answer such questions, Thomas A. Hirschl of Cornell and I looked at 44 years of longitudinal data regarding individuals from ages 25 to 60… The results were striking. It turns out that 12 percent of the population will find themselves in the top 1 percent of the income distribution for at least one year. What’s more, 39 percent of Americans will spend a year in the top 5 percent of the income distribution, 56 percent will find themselves in the top 10 percent, and a whopping 73 percent will spend a year in the top 20 percent of the income distribution. …the image of a static 1 and 99 percent is largely incorrect. …This is just as true at the bottom of the income distribution scale, where 54 percent of Americans will experience poverty or near poverty at least once between the ages of 25 and 60… Ultimately, this information casts serious doubt on the notion of a rigid class structure in the United States based upon income. It suggests that the United States is indeed a land of opportunity, that the American dream is still possible”
If that is anywhere near true, then it blows the fuck out of your position, wouldn’t you say? In fact, it proves the US has extreme economic mobility.
i read your article,do you believe that 56% of of americans will spend a year in the top 10% of income distribution?
nah,i don’t either–
At least it has some source material, including for that stat. Unlike the link you provided. Your beliefs are meaningless. Facts are what are required. And so far you have none. So solly. But I do love it when narrative gets shit kicked out of it by actual facts, and then the narrator comes back and acts like narrative wins. How quaint.
And btw, I am 61. I just am cranky before my time.
BTW – today, to be in the top 10% requires an income of around $116,000. The data says that 56% of the population will crack that at least once in their lives. I know that does not fit the narrative, but there it is.
Anecdotally- which is not data – around 60% of the young people, under 30, say, that I know have already cracked the top 10% barrier.
The lower skilled people will likely never do it, but the US still offers a lot of opportunity. World-wide income tables will attest to it.
i didn’t dig in very deep so it might be there but are these #s household income or individual income stats?
Pretty sure it was individual. Hey, I do not know if this data is accurate, but it shows source material (a Cornell study, for example). It would be a pretty straightforward thing, if the raw data is available, to take a random sample of people over say 45 years and see if in any one year they made enough to be in the top 10% for any one year. It seems a bit high to me, but then you need to know what is income(capital gains for instance, etc.).
But the claim is, and source material is provided, that there is far more mobility than generally thought.
But think of it this way, given the bottom 40 % are never going to do anything, for the rest to achieve top 10% is really just top 20% when you discount the 40% that will never earn anything.
Still seems high, as you say. But it may be that it is the fact of the matter, especially as the source seems reputable. But you never can tell.
Of course I made more (some years) than my parents did. 2% inflation (really more like 10%) made it worth less, of course, but the illusion was nice.
As a side note, imagine that my dad had bought a monster box of silver eagles (not available until 1986) for $4 / each back then, the value would have quadrupled (so far) since then, but with inflation only be worth half the original price? We don’t hate our politicians NEARLY enough.
They want free shit ! Who knew?
The way things are NOW, this article makes good points for why people would look toward socialism. Isn’t that kinda sorta what we have now in many ways? It’s already here.
The oldest member of Generation Z would be about 14 years old. Started around 2005.
either that, or The Millennial Generation was shortchanged a good number of years.
Each generational sub group lasts for about 20 years.
Ah yes SOCIALISM , look at any government agency parking lot and compare it to Amazon or Wal-Mart . New cars and trucks on one and the other late model vehicles hanging on week to week ! Check out who retires in their 50’s and who works till they drop !
Now look who gets a bail out at 100% and who’s life savings is earning .02% interest per year .
This of course after their pension plan went bankrupt !
Now why does socialism look so good to young people today you ask ?
They witnessed their parents and grand parents get fucked financially for decades but the circle jerk of Wall Street to K-Street to Capital Street and their connected minions especially the armed LEO variety are doing fine . Obviously socialism is working great for the connected few but hey not for you !