Millennial socialism
Millennial socialism is a resurgence of interest in democratic socialism and social democracy among Americans and Britons born between 1981 and 1996, generationally known as millennials.
Background
[edit]According to some studies, American millennials are more supportive of aspects of socialist politics than prior generations.[1] Some American millennials support policies that would widen social safety nets and provide relief for student debt and health care costs.[2] In some late 2010s polls, young Americans viewed socialism positively and had a less favorable view of capitalism than their forebears.[3][4][5] According to a 2021 Axios poll, 49% of Americans aged 18 to 34 viewed capitalism positively, compared to 58% in 2019.[6] Capitalism, increasingly dissociated from its connotations of American success during the Cold War, developed an association with corporate greed, exacerbating climate change,[2] and inherited wealth.[5] Surveys from the UK show similar results.[7] Some commentators and researchers, such as James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute and Emily Ekins of the Cato Institute, have argued that millennial support for socialism can be more accurately described as support for social democracy, as opposed to socialism as traditionally conceived (e.g, a planned economy).[8][9][10]
As a generation, American millennials grew up with political discussions about class and inequality, the youngest millennials having been teenagers during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement.[11] Young Americans generally face worse economic prospects than their forebears, including a higher cost of living,[2] and an increased student debt burden.[11] A 2019 SuperMoney report showed that average millennial income growth is flat after inflation.[2] Similar observations have been made of British millennials, with a 2021 IEA survey finding nearly 8 out of 10 younger Britons blaming capitalism for Britain's housing shortage, as opposed to the economic consensus that many economists espouse regarding housing which is that government intervention is responsible for high housing costs and shortages (zoning laws, land use regulations, rent control etc.).[12][13][14]
Electoral politics
[edit]The American democratic socialist politicians Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have enjoyed support among millennials, with 70% saying they would be supportive of a candidate with a socialist background.[2] A 2019 YouGov poll showed a majority of millennial respondents as likely to vote for a socialist candidate[2] and millennial voters in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary preferred the democratic socialist candidate Sanders over Joe Biden by 20 percentage points. Throughout the late 2010s, millennials revitalized the aging Democratic Socialists of America from a marginalized advocacy group to 100,000 members nationwide.[11] Sanders and millennial socialists invoke the Nordic model as an alternative, in which taxes on markets and a high personal income tax, including of the middle class, fund the government.[2]
Jeremy Corbyn of the United Kingdom Labour Party had a similarly energizing effect on his country's millennials, though while he tripled the political party's size to become the largest in western Europe, its growth was not driven primarily by young people: the average age remained similar to that before the expansion.[15]
Analysis
[edit]A 2019 Pew Research poll found that millennials were more distrustful of others than prior generations, suggesting that millennial socialist interest in state intervention might stem less from belief in human goodness and social trust, and more from a lack of such trust.[1]
Economist Ed Glaeser credits "boomer socialism" for the rise of millennial socialism. Although baby boomers (born 1946 to 1964) have an unfavorable view of socialism, baby boomers had social democratic programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and subsidized mortgages.[2]
A 2023 Yougov poll found that 40% of British millennials had a favourable view of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, whereas only 4% of Baby Boomers held the same view. Rob Sewell, editor of the Socialist Appeal, attributed this generational shift due to a myriad of problems impacting current younger generations due to capitalism. Sewell cited issues such as food poverty, climate change, unemployment, declining quality of school infrastructure and imperialism.[16]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b Levitz, Eric (August 15, 2019). "America's Most Socialist Generation Is Also Its Most Misanthropic". Intelligencer. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Wallace, Danielle (January 30, 2020). "What is millennial socialism?". Fox News. Archived from the original on March 3, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
Seventy percent of millennials – and 64 percent of Gen Z – answered that they'd be somewhat or extremely likely to vote for a socialist candidate, according to a poll conducted by data and research firm YouGov last September for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.
- ^ Solis, Marie (May 4, 2020). "Why Gen Z Is Turning to Socialism". Vice. Archived from the original on May 15, 2021. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
- ^ Salmon, Felix (January 27, 2019). "More Americans aged between 18 and 24 prefer 'socialism' to 'capitalism'". Axios. Archived from the original on June 5, 2021. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
- ^ a b JOseph Blasi, Douglas L Kruse (April 10, 2018). "Today's youth reject capitalism, but what do they want to replace it?".
- ^ Salmon, Felix (June 25, 2021). "America's continued move toward socialism". Axios. Retrieved June 28, 2021.
- ^ "Left turn ahead: Surveying attitudes of young people towards capitalism and socialism". Institute of Economic Affairs. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
- ^ Pethokoukis, James (May 20, 2021). "Some thoughts of Millennials, Socialism and Scandinavia". American Enterprise Institute.
- ^ "Millennials believe in free markets and want a Scandinavian welfare state". Promarket. March 25, 2016.
- ^ Ekins, Emily. "Why so many millennials are socialists".
- ^ a b c Beery, Zoë (November 27, 2020). "The Rich Kids Who Want to Tear Down Capitalism". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 8, 2021. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
- ^ Beyer, Scott. "How Ironic: America's Rent-Controlled Cities Are Its Least Affordable". Forbes. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
- ^ Dougherty, Conor (October 12, 2018). "Why Rent Control Is a Lightning Rod". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
- ^ Owen Jones (September 20, 2021). "Eat the rich! Why millennials and generation Z have turned their backs on capitalism". The Guardian.
- ^ Mead, Julia (January 10, 2017). "Why Millennials Aren't Afraid of Socialism". The Nation. ISSN 0027-8378.
- ^ "Communism, the youth, and the fight for revolution". The Communist. September 8, 2023.
Further reading
[edit]- Burns, Alexander (July 22, 2018). "There Is a Revolution on the Left. Democrats Are Bracing". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on July 30, 2018. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
- "Democratic socialism surging in the age of Trump". AP News. July 21, 2018. Archived from the original on July 29, 2018. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
- Isaac, Jeffrey C. (July 30, 2019). "Millennial Socialism and Its Limits". Los Angeles Review of Books. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
- Lemon, Jason (June 25, 2021). "Majority of Gen Z Americans Hold Negative Views of Capitalism: Poll". Newsweek. Retrieved June 27, 2021.
- Jacobson, Gavin (June 5, 2019). "The rise of millennial socialism". The New Statesman. Archived from the original on January 13, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
- McGreal, Chris (September 2, 2017). "'The S-word': how young Americans fell in love with socialism". The Guardian. Archived from the original on May 6, 2021. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
- Niemietz, Kristian (October 2019). "Millennial Socialism: Same old, same old". Economic Affairs. 39 (3): 424–432. doi:10.1111/ecaf.12368. ISSN 0265-0665. S2CID 211669858.
- "Out of left field: Millennial socialists want to shake up the economy and save the climate". The Economist. February 14, 2019. ISSN 0013-0613. Archived from the original on April 5, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
- "The fire next time: What would millennial socialists do with power?". The Economist. November 28, 2019. ISSN 0013-0613. Archived from the original on April 5, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
- "The resurgent left: Millennial socialism". The Economist. February 19, 2019. ISSN 0013-0613. Archived from the original on April 5, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
- Vallespín, Fernando (March 10, 2019). "Análisis – Socialismo milenial en EE UU". El País (in Spanish). Madrid. ISSN 1134-6582. Archived from the original on June 8, 2020. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
- Zuylen-Wood, Simon van (March 3, 2019). "When Did Everyone Become a Socialist?". Intelligencer. Archived from the original on May 16, 2021. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
