What to do? Young people now favor 'socialism' over 'capitalism'

[radiofriendly]

Young people (18-29) now have a more positive view of socialism than they do of capitalism (49% vs. 43%). This is a shift in just the last two years. No doubt the depressed economy–with a good chunk of college graduates returning home to live with their parents–has been a big influence on these numbers. See Chart (http://iroots.org/2012/11/03/young-people-now-favor-socialism-over-capitalism/).
http://iroots.org/wp-content/uploads/hipster.jpg (http://iroots.org/2012/11/03/young-people-now-favor-socialism-over-capitalism/)

Before you panic, keep in mind that these numbers are simply a measure of perception. A majority of those polled probably have no idea what these terms mean. Capitalism has something to do with that mustached banker in the Monopoly game, right?

However, this trend is dire and clearly headed in the wrong direction.

What are conservatives and libertarians to do? If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice that the political football game isn’t helping this trend in any way. Fox’s Sean Hannity couldn’t teach a free market principle if his life depended on it. Yesterday, he was busy calling Hurricane Sandy ‘Obama’s Katrina.’

And the politicians, themselves? Minus a few individual exceptions, It can be objectively argued that Republicans have expanded the size of government far greater than Democrats ever have–factoring out Obamacare. (This doesn’t even take into account military spending. Has Senator McCain ever heard of a war he didn’t want to go in debt to fight?)

More: http://iroots.org/2012/11/03/young-people-now-favor-socialism-over-capitalism/

[ShaneEnochs]

This was posted a day or so ago. I'll see if I can get the link.

[sailingaway]

give them better information?

[Dick Chaney]

These "socialists" clearly don't understand the difference between "crony capitalism" and "capitalism"

[ShaneEnochs]

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?394247-Americans-Aged-18-29-Have-A-More-Favorable-Response-To-Socialism-Than-To-Capitalism

[radiofriendly]

Lot's of articles have that chart---I'm hoping that this post would be more of a brainstorm of "what to do about this" on the educational side....

The article is original.

What are conservatives and libertarians to do? If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice that the political football game isn’t helping this trend in any way. Fox’s Sean Hannity couldn’t teach a free market principle if his life depended on it. Yesterday, he was busy calling Hurricane Sandy ‘Obama’s Katrina.’

And the politicians, themselves? Minus a few individual exceptions, It can be objectively argued that Republicans have expanded the size of government far greater than Democrats ever have–factoring out Obamacare. (This doesn’t even take into account military spending. Has Senator McCain ever heard of a war he didn’t want to go in debt to fight?)

The growth of entitlement spending over the past half-century has been distinctly greater under Republican administrations than Democratic ones. Between 1960 and 2010, the growth of entitlement spending was exponential, but in any given year, it was on the whole roughly 8% higher if the president happened to be a Republican rather than a Democrat. (Eberstadt)

What to do?

Well, number one, stop giving money to the Republican Party and start supporting individual candidates and organizations. (Speaking of which, I hope you’ll take a look at our expanding mission statement and consider giving a donation to iroots.org.)

Clearly, we have our work cut out for us. There is a ton of work to be done on the educational front. As an aside, I’ve always thought that a site that essentially dumbed down the fabulous mises.org site or made the incredible audio collection more accessible to the general public would be a great place to start–and this happens to be one of our goals here at iroots.org.

Tom Woods is doing an incredible job with his Liberty Classroom and Young Americans for Liberty continues to educate and grow on college campuses. If you don’t have one on your campus, help one get started!

What are some of your ideas of how to expand on the educational front?

A libertarian muppet show?...

http://iroots.org/2012/11/03/young-people-now-favor-socialism-over-capitalism/#more-5950

[ronpaulfollower999]

Hijack the word socialism.

[thoughtomator]

We put kids in public schools for 8 hours a day, and we've known for decades that they were not being educated with that time. Given that these schools are all NEA turf, what did you think was happening? The kids are being trained as socialists. Hell, I myself found an Obama biography on the local county's 6th-grade reading list.

[Carson]

It seems that there is an endless supply of money to bend the education of the young in any direction the counterfeiters want.

Your wealth.

When they counterfeit the money supply they don't add anything to the pile of stuff, they just shift the boundaries on ownership of the pile. In effect they are drawing the wealth out of every ones stuff. It must have seemed it would never end. Who would have thought they would devalue our pile of stuff so much we could no longer afford to earn an honest living.

The funny thing though...remember how well it worked on us?

Actually, I suppose it did work pretty well. We've been twisted around like a pretzel. So much so, it really hurts.

[oyarde]

The kids in that photo look like they should have graduated 6 - 10 years ago . If they were close in proximity to me :) , they would at least get the extra motivation of me telling them , " get a job , slacker " , whenever they came by to bum cigarettes , LOL.

[Dogsoldier]

Well to be fair they have never had capitalism so they can't make an educated choice.

[NoOneButPaul]

We just have to harp home we haven't been living with Capitalism for 100 years.

Furthermore... I don't think for a second this is actually true, and even if it is, 43% of people between the ages 18-29 is still a pretty damn good benchmark. Most people that age are hardcore liberals, the fact it's within 6% is actually really encouraging.

I've read numerous articles on my generation's move to fiscal conservatism while still saying socially liberal so I wouldn't worry so much about these types of things. The difference between us and today's mainstream conservatives is the Federal Reserve angle... when explained properly populus liberals understand why it's so destructive and the further we push that message the more broad based the support will be (we've already seen this with Ron).

I think the problem is today's Republican party is RUINING the conservatism vision right before our eyes with crony capitalism and big government police states run amok it's all having a dramatic effect on the vision of conservatism to the younger people... we need to take the conservative party back and give people a real option again... that would really do wonders for this country.

[Dr.3D]

The entire educational system is biased toward liberalism.... or as they prefer to be called, progressive. The instructors are selected to be liberal leaning and they assign studies to the students to force them in a liberal direction. Both of my sons came to me and said they had been assigned to write a paper telling why Obama is a great president. I had to explain to them, hold your nose and do what you have to do to get the grade.

It's no wonder those who are fresh out of college and even high school are thinking like a liberal.

Now Obama is stressing education... of course that is code for indoctrination and the more students go through the system, the more democrat voters there will be. Good luck with changing this as those in power, are the ones giving the money (scholarships) for many of these kids to go to college.

[QuickZ06]

That picture had failure written all over it, from the time I saw that stash and a PBR in that dudes hand.

[FrancisMarion]

The entire educational system is biased toward liberalism.... or as they prefer to be called, progressive. The instructors are selected to be liberal leaning and they assign studies to the students to force them in a liberal direction. Both of my sons came to me and said they had been assigned to write a paper telling why Obama is a great president. I had to explain to them, hold your nose and do what you have to do to get the grade.

It's no wonder those who are fresh out of college and even high school are thinking like a liberal.

Now Obama is stressing education... of course that is code for indoctrination and the more students go through the system, the more democrat voters there will be. Good luck with changing this as those in power, are the ones giving the money (scholarships) for many of these kids to go to college.

Really?

It seems that today's youth are being told what to think instead of being taught how to think.

[thoughtomator]

Really?

It seems that today's youth are being told what to think instead of being taught how to think.

They are being taught not to think. If they show signs of independent thought they are reliably punished for it until they relent and submit to authority.

[Dr.3D]

Really?

It seems that today's youth are being told what to think instead of being taught how to think.
Well, both of my sons had to really think hard to come up with why Obama is such a good president to be able to write the paper their professor was looking for.

[liberty2897]

Sorry if it is offensive, but all I can think of when I look at the image posted in that article is: .... "gay".

As in this definition:
Not necessarily used to describe someones sexual orientation. Often used as an insult in a friendly context without the purpose of actually insulting the person objected to the word. Can also be used as an adjective to describe a certain object, individual or situation.

[Dr.3D]

Sorry if it is offensive, but all I can think of when I look at the image posted in that article is: .... "gay".

As in this definition:
Not necessarily used to describe someones sexual orientation. Often used as an insult in a friendly context without the purpose of actually insulting the person objected to the word. Can also be used as an adjective to describe a certain object, individual or situation.
Don't worry about it, the last time I went to a college class, one of the guys there, asked me if I was gay. I replied, "why do you ask, are you looking for a date?" He became very upset with me but knew better than to start a fight over it.

[ronpaulfollower999]

The entire educational system is biased toward liberalism.... or as they prefer to be called, progressive. The instructors are selected to be liberal leaning and they assign studies to the students to force them in a liberal direction. Both of my sons came to me and said they had been assigned to write a paper telling why Obama is a great president. I had to explain to them, hold your nose and do what you have to do to get the grade.

It's no wonder those who are fresh out of college and even high school are thinking like a liberal.

Now Obama is stressing education... of course that is code for indoctrination and the more students go through the system, the more democrat voters there will be. Good luck with changing this as those in power, are the ones giving the money (scholarships) for many of these kids to go to college.

Thats why I was never a good student. I'd do the Ron Swanson approach (2:50):


http://vimeo.com/24554205

[FrancisMarion]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOENu0fK0uM

[awake]

This is completely normal. Most everyone starts in ignorance and progress to some level of truth. Socialists like the idea of free things and freedom to do as they please to anyone when it suits - adolescent immaturity. Reality is scarcity, property transactions and responsibility that have an unavoidable price. The public school/university complex keeps this lesson away from the minds of the young. They should be teaching it.

Everyone eventually gets it...the real dense ones tend to get it 5 mins before they checkout of life.

[Carson]

Well to be fair they have never had capitalism so they can't make an educated choice.


Good point!

With the back door stealth socialism they been able to engineer with the counterfeit, we haven't had true capitalism since before World War Two. We did seem to prosper in the fifties and sixties despite not ever fully recovering from the counterfeiting to finance the war. That was a long time ago.

Funny how they try and point the accusatory finger at capitalism. Well, not Ha Ha funny.

[emazur]

Here's what socialism has gotten us: by 2025 (and that's being optimistic), the ENTIRE federal budget will be consumed by a combination of entitlements and interest on the national debt:
http://bipartisanpolicy.org/sites/default/files/FINAL%20DRTF%20EXECUTIVE%20SUMMARY_0.pdf
http://i.imgur.com/iaR6g.jpg

For these young people, I would ask them how much longer beyond 2025 this could possibly last, how much social security and medicare do they think will be left when they retire, and what they think the highest percent of the federal budget should go towards paying interest on the national debt