Why Do Young People Find Socialism So Attractive?

To anyone over the age of 40, the growing appeal of socialist policies within the younger generations can be confusing. To us, this nation's capitalist system has provided the highest standard of living the world has ever seen, while "socialism" repeatedly leads to totalitarian governments like China and the USSR and destroys once prosperous nations like Venezuela. One must wonder if our younger generations live in the same world as we do. Do they not see the same things we see? The answer to these questions is a resounding no. The younger generations are growing up in a nation and a world vastly different from the ones in which Americans over the age of 40 were raised. What they see is therefore filtered through an equally offset lens.

People over the age of 40 saw their parents and grandparents work stable jobs for the entirety of their careers — often with a single parent earning enough to support an entire family. They saw their parents pay into Social Security, and then those same parents drew on those funds upon retirement. Their parents had college degrees without debt. They could access health care without concern that it would bankrupt them. They trusted the safety and competence of the public education system. They trusted elected officials to be honest and to obey the laws of the offices given to them. If their parents failed economically, there was a familial and religious culture that could combine with government programs to help them. American children today have largely seen the opposite. American workers are routinely replaced by imported foreign workers and by outsourcing to foreign lands. Immigrants and illegal aliens massively drive down labor costs, requiring both parents to work to sustain an ever shrinking family. Everyone pays into Social Security, but no one under the age of thirty believes that it will remain in place for him to draw from when needed. The cost of college is unsustainable. No one trusts elected officials. Everyone feels that a single injury or illness will destroy his finances for decades. For many of us, it feels as if the prevailing sentiment of the now multicultural society is to cheer for our economic failure. The America of today is starkly divided into two groups: a group that already accesses America as a socialist entity and a group that pays for that system but has no access to it. For the first group, America is already a largely socialist government. Members draw their subsistence from government welfare programs and can receive as much as $1,000 a month for simply not committing crimes. Health care is largely subsidized or simply free, as the recipients either have no money or cannot be traced due to their lack of registration with the government. Food and housing are often subsidized as well, through federal or state programs. They are also given preference in access to education and access to programs to offset the cost of that education. Many of them who receive those benefits are citizens of other nations residing here illegally, but they still receive both the preferential access and offset costs denied to citizens and even veterans. For the second group, they and their parents have paid into this system through taxes for their entire lives, yet they have seen few, if any, of the benefits to that payment. They are on no government programs. While violent illegal aliens are protected from prosecution, members of this second group receive harsh punishment for even minor nonviolent offenses. Any injury results in massive costs, and they are always fighting to keep jobs with shrinking wages and no security. To members of this second group, the implementation of government policies that promise them at least a minimal return on the payments they are making into that system is a relief. This is how the younger generation of Americans view a "socialist" model, and this is why they see potential in it. To young Americans, a system that promises minimal access to equality with other classes living in the U.S. is preferable to a capitalist model that robs them of all funds, all options, and all dignity while providing benefits only to other groups. Access to a terrible health care system is still better than one that will bankrupt you if you touch it. Access to a low-quality but free university system may still be preferable to one that is inaccessible due to race and will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars if you are given the ability to attend. The guarantee of a poorly funded safety net is still better than one that isn't there at all. The younger generation of Americans do not fear a totalitarian state, where they pay into a system in which the benefits can be accessed only by those with government influence, because younger Americans are already living in that state. The only difference is that those who are receiving the benefit of their labor are not some elite class of rulers from among their own people, but rather those who have the political and cultural power to redirect that wealth. This is namely a migrant class that has become the dominant force in American politics as well as other groups that have been able to establish power to give themselves legal preferences in education, contracting, and protections. To pull the younger generation back from the lure of "socialism," we must demonstrate both that the rule of law still applies within the U.S. and reassert equality under the law — without delay and without exception. The government must also provide a minimal level of care and benefits for those who pay into the system without allowing threats of violence to pull those resources to citizens of other nations or to be used disproportionately on those who rely solely on those benefits for generations without efforts to rise above those benefits. In short, the government must cease working for others and once again work for its citizens and stop calling that "socialism."