WHY SO MANY MILLENIALS ARE SOCIALIST? The Truth May Surprise You
Why are so many American millennials socialist when they live in a Democratic Republic? With America having all the freedoms and opportunities she has, it has only happened because we are a Democratic Republic. So why do some Americans want socialism? We dig deeper into this issue to find out the answer to these questions.
Emily Ekins, from the CATO Institute, spoke on Blaze TV to explain why many millennials are socialist and it is because they do not have an accurate picture of what it really is. “Young people today don’t know what the word (socialism) means. They don’t know what it meant during the Cold War; they don’t know what the technical definition is, so for them, they think of socialism as just being Scandinavia which is a much bigger social welfare state.” She also says that Scandinavia is not actually a socialist country.
Ekins continues, “It’s interesting because Tea Party supporters are the most likely group to be able to accurately define socialism when asked to. For instance, the actual definition of socialism is something like government ownership of the means of production…57% of Tea Party supports could answer that correctly. Only 16% of millennials could and only about…20% of Democrats could define it correctly. For whatever reason Republicans have a better understanding as to what socialism is.”
It is important to understand that Scandinavia is a democracy that has a generous heart and wants to help people out. America also has a generous heart and is the most generous country in the world! Americans can’t compare to these other small countries who may be able to do more for their citizens because it is on a much smaller scale. America has a population of 350 million! For example, when compared to Canada at only 38 million. We really need to have American citizens educated on these truths, and we could see a huge change in hearts.
What is the definition of socialism? Merriam Webster defines it as any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods; a system of society or group living in which there is no private property; a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state. This reminds us of the country of China where everything is owned by the government including the Church! Most of the Church must hide and meet in homes, and when they are found out, the government will take a bulldozer and destroy the house because they own the land.
Next, we look at students who are asking for forgiveness for student debt among other things. These students are participating in a million-student march because they want top earners to pay their tuition. One student spoke on Cavuto Coast to Coast on Fox News about what these students are demanding. Keely Millen is the million-student march national organizer. Neil Cavuto asks some specific questions to Millen as to what the students are wanting, and she answers, “The million-student march is a movement for a more equitable and fair system of education as opposed to the really corporate model that we have right now. So, the three core demands of the national day of action are 1. Free public college; 2. A cancellation of student debt; 3. A $15 an hour minimum wage for people who work on the campus.”
Cavuto asks her how this all will be paid. Millen answers not very confident that it would be 1% of society that are hoarding their wealth and that they are causing this catastrophe that students are facing. What this young woman doesn’t realize when you look at the world’s wealth, she is a part of the top 1% of society! It is a tragedy that universities are teaching our children lies, and in turn, once the students realize this, there will be much anger against the schools.
Dr. Thomas Sowell, an American economist, and social theorist shares with us his view on millennials and socialism and why millennials are buying into this agenda. First Dr. Sowell is asked what his opinion is on this quote made by Bernie Sanders, “While there are some great corporations, trying to do the right thing, in my view—and I say this very seriously—greed of the billionaire class, the greed of Wall Street is destroying the lives of millions of Americans.”
Dr. Sowell’s responds, “It’s astonishing but I think even more astonishing is how many people voted for Bernie Sanders at a time wherein socialist Venezuela people are starving. They are breaking into stores in desperation to get food. They are crossing the borders into other countries to stave off starvation. In a country that has one of the largest suppliers of oil…people are so utterly insulated from facts. The fact that Bernie Sanders paints a very beautiful picture is all that matters.”
At VFNtv we have people writing us from Venezuela and asking for prayer and have told us if the police come onto a bus they can take their money, rape them and can do whatever they want to. Thankfully the citizens of Venezuela have voted in a new president, and the country is in the process of getting Nicolas Maduro out of office so the new president Juan Guaido can take his place and help turn this country around!
Brazil is one such country that has been under socialism and Felipe Moura Brasil; a journalist explains with PragerU how his country has failed under socialism. “Many American millennials seems to be drawn to socialism. They came out in big numbers for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential primaries. They rail against capitalism at their college campuses. They wear Chu Guevara t-shirts to signal their socialist virtue.” Brasil shares how he knows a lot about socialism since he lives in Brazil and even works for a popular magazine in his country.
“In the early 2000s Brazil’s economy was growing rapidly. The government had enacted economic and monetary reforms and divested holdings in some state-run companies giving the private sector more room to breathe. Inflation, a chronic problem in Brazil, was dramatically reduced. Foreign investors poured into the country eager to catch a portion of our expanding economy.” He says that the future looked promising, but today the economy is destroyed! Unemployment and debt are huge, and politicians are being investigated for the largest scandal of fraud and corruption in Brazil’s history. He shares what happened to cause this.
“In 2002 a socialist politician named Lula da Silva ran for the presidency. He was a socialist but painted himself as a modern, cool kind of socialist. He would be the politician who would heal national divisions and unite everyone…but the old message about the need for income redistribution to decrease inequality was still there.” All the media, elite and famous assured the public that if the money were transferred from the wealthy to the poor, the poor would be richer!
“But the only ones who got rich were Lula and his corporate political friends. It only got worse under his successor Dilma Rousseff. The socialist increased government spending, deficits, and debt. They called it a stimulus. They increased the minimum wage and the benefits of social progress. They call it social justice. They increased the salaries and retirement benefits of the civil service; they called it investing in the future. They handed out thousands of jobs in the government and state-owned companies as favors to their political allies, and they called it good governance.” He continues to share how this worked for a while and that, “Socialism always works at the beginning.” But government spending kept getting higher and higher and the economy fell. From 2008 to 2015 government spending was 4x higher than the tax revenue the country was receiving. Their economy was found to be one of the worst in the world!
“Economically and morally the almost 15 years of socialist policies have greatly harmed Brazil. We also remain among the world’s leader in murder and robbery, and we rank near the bottom of industrialized nations in terms of education and healthcare. Americans take it for granted that they can be born into the lower class and reach the middle or even upper class. Many Brazilians take it for granted that they can’t. More and more Brazilians see that capitalism and limited government are the only way forward.”
Many students are being taught to embrace socialism and to believe the lie that socialism is a good thing for America! It destroyed Brazil! But now there is good news for Brazil because a new president has been elected Jair Bolsonaro, and he is said to be like President Donald Trump. It matters who our leaders are and in America, we lead the world!
One man said communism and socialism are the biggest temptations to a person’s flesh because many don’t want to work. We can look at the American dream though and see that working hard and learning how to do what we need to do can make that American dream come to fruition! Socialism is not the answer for America, and we need to pray for and educate Americans on the truth of what it truly is. What do you think about socialism? We want to know your thoughts! Write to us at [email protected]. Greg and John shared in this segment.
See more, related content and articles for this article.