The youngest voting generation today is the most liberal bloc in a long, long time for three reasons.

First, they're young and poor, and young, poor people are historically more liberal. Second, they're historically non-white. Non-white Americans are historically liberal, too. Third, their white demo is historically liberal compared to older white voters, as Jon Chait has pointed out. It all adds up to one cresting blue wave. For now.

But something interesting happens when Millennials start making serious dough. They start getting much more squeamish about giving it away.

Richer Millennials on Redistribution: No, Thanks

Reason Foundation

2. Millennials don't know what they're talking about when it comes to economics.

Young people lean way left on issues like gay marriage, pot, and immigration. On abortion and gun control, they swim closer to the rest of the electorate.

But on economics, they're all over the map. You get the sense, reading the Reason Foundation and Pew studies, that a savvy pollster could trick a young person into supporting basically any economic policy in the world with the right combination of triggers. Conservative and liberal partisans can cherry-pick this survey to paint Millennials as whatever ideology they want. To wit:

On spending:

Conservatives can say: 65 percent of Millennials would like to cut spending.

Liberals can say: 62 percent would like to spend more on infrastructure and jobs.

Conservatives can say: 65 percent of Millennials would like to cut spending. Liberals can say: 62 percent would like to spend more on infrastructure and jobs. On taxes:

Conservatives can say: 58 percent of Millennials want to cut taxes overall.

Liberals can say: 66 percent want to raise taxes on the wealthy.

Conservatives can say: 58 percent of Millennials want to cut taxes overall. Liberals can say: 66 percent want to raise taxes on the wealthy. On government's role in our lives:

Conservatives can say: 66 percent of Millennials say that "when something is funded by the government, it is usually inefficient and wasteful."

Liberals can say: More than two-thirds think the government should guarantee food, shelter, and a living wage.

Conservatives can say: 66 percent of Millennials say that "when something is funded by the government, it is usually inefficient and wasteful." Liberals can say: More than two-thirds think the government should guarantee food, shelter, and a living wage. On government size:

Conservatives can say: 57 percent want smaller government with fewer services (if you mention the magic word "taxes").

Liberals can say: 54 percent want larger government with more services (if you don't mention "taxes").

Some of these positions suggest, rather than prove, utter incoherence. For example, you can technically support (a) reducing the overall tax burden and (b) raising taxes on the wealthy by raising the investment tax and absolving the bottom 50 percent of Social Security taxes. Somehow, I think what's happening is simpler than young people doing the long math of effective tax rates. I think they're just confused.

Overall, Millennials offer the murky impression of a generation that doesn't really understand basic economics. To be fair, neither do most Americans. Or many economists, perhaps. Or most journalists. Economics is hard.

3. Far less important, but entertaining nonetheless: Millennials don't know what socialism is, but they think it sounds nice.

I predict that any readers over the age of 30 will absolutely love this fact about voters under the age of 29. Forty-two percent of Millennials think socialism is preferable to capitalism, but only 16 percent of Millennials could accurately define socialism in the survey.

Socialism or Capitalism?

Reason Foundation

Say what you want about the tenets of national socialism, dude, at least it's an ethos that young people can define in an Internet survey.

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