December 8, 2017

BY EILLIE ANZILOTTI

A 2016 poll by the Harvard Institute of Politics found that just 19% of Americans aged 18 to 29 identified themselves as capitalists; only 42% claimed they supported the economic system. Another Harvard poll, released on December 5, found that two-thirds of that same age group is fearful for the future of the country. Just 14% think we’re headed in the right direction...

The millennial generation is the one, after all, that came of age and entered the job market during or right after the financial crash of 2008, which was precipitated by the failure of the large financial institutions that both symbolize and drive the capitalist system.

It’s also, according to the World Economic Forum, the first generation in modern memory to be on track to be worse off than their parents. The median earnings of millennials in 2013 were 43% lower than someone who was their age and working in 1995. Even though average wages have inched slowly upward in recent years after a long period of stagnation, they’re still 8% lower than they were before the 2008 recession. And average student debt, has, since 2008, climbed from around $24,000 to over $37,000.

So what might that alternative look like? Ask millennials, and they have a strong preference for a more socialist model: According to a 2016 Gallup poll, the popularity of capitalism and socialism is neck-and-neck among younger Americans, while older generations are still distrusting of socialism. Younger people are also the ones driving the surge of the Democratic Socialists of America, which endorsed 15 winning candidates in the November election...

If anything, the Trump administration is only serving to galvanize millennials’ beliefs. The president himself is perhaps one of the most extreme products of capitalism, and his success signifies what many feel to be the irrationality of the system. And as the Republican Party inches closer to passing the tax bill that will increase inequality and strip students of their already-limited financial resources, while leaving even less to help people at the lower end of the economic spectrum, the call for a system that prioritizes humanity and equity over inflating the profits of a tiny fraction of the already well-off will only continue to grow.

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I have not been able to find polls on the popularity of socialism in the past. During the War in Vietnam socialism, and even varities of Marxist Leninism, were popular among many anti war activists. That faded when the War ended.

The New Left and the anti war movement never had leaders with the stature of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Prominent members included Mark Rudd, Jerry Rubin, and Bernardine Dohrn.

During the 1980's Mark Rudd said, "The War in Vietnam drove us crazy. Where we were really mistaken was in imagining that a revolution was a remote possibility in the United States."

Jerry Rubin said, "We are refugees from a future that never happened."

Bernardine Dohrn said, "One of the first things you learn when you get far from a college campus is how completely irrelevant the white left is to the lives of most Americans."

Currently, socialism may be more popular than ever before in American history. Someone who is 29 now was born in 1988. Such a person barely remembers the Cold War, if at all. If that person has studied history that person knows that when Communism has emerged spontaneously in a country it has not emerged from democratic socialism. Instead, Communism has been a reaction against an autocracy that defended an oligarchy against an impoverished populace.

Young people who are favorable to socialism associate it with what exists in the British Commonwealth, Germany, and Scandinavia. They think the example of Venezuela is irrelevant to the United States. Cliches like, "The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money," and "Socialism has failed in every country where it has been tried," do not resonate with them.

During the past two years the alt right has made a lot of noise. Nevertheless, the growing approval and practice of inter racial dating and marriage demonstrate that racial consciousness is declining in the United States, especially among the young.

According to a Gallup Survey released May 11, 2017, "Americans continue to express an increasingly liberal outlook on what is morally acceptable."
http://news.gallup.com/poll/210542/americans-hold-record-liberal-views-moral-issues.aspx

This reduces the ability of the Republican Party to win the support of Americans who do not benefit from Republican efforts to skew things more in favor of the well to do.

Currently, "Senator Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in America, according to a newHarvard-Harris poll. In fact, the Vermont senator and former presidential candidate is the only politician in the U.S. who a majority of voters like."

Donald Trump and his tax plan are unpopular.

 

Guess They should Just shut the doors.....



Turn Out the Lights---The Party is Over

 

Socialism...a wet pipe dream.

 

- RandyKnight

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I reported facts and my analysis of the facts. You, as I expected, posted cliches that do not resonate as much as they used to. It is pointless to even try to have an intelligent discussion with you two about serious issues. What I elicit from you are not facts and insights, but snide comments, irritable attitudes, and jejune insults.

 

Bullshit!!!! Young people today are more materialistic than any generation before them. The all want the cars, houses, clothes, electronics and all the other material goods money can buy.

The only problem they have with capitalism is they are lazy and don't want or feel they should be required to work for it.

They want free education, free health care, free housing and the list goes on.

The GDP and standard of living is lower in non capitalist countries.

That is a fact DL....

 

You reported a poll... NOT A MOTHER FUCKING FACT, and your own mother fucking OPINION.

Perhaps Randy and I find it even more pointless to have a serious conversation with someone that doesn't know what a fact is, confusing it with an opinion from a poll.

 

How do you define a "non capitalist" country?

According to the CIA World Fact Book Communist China has the highest gross domestic product (GDP), followed by the European Union.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html#us

This of course is misleading, because China has a much higher population than the United States. A better statistic to go by is per capita GDP.

According to the CIA World Factbook the United States is number 20 when it comes to per capita GDP. Norway, which a social democratic economy, comes in at number 13.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html#us

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CNN Travel, March 2017

(CNN) — Norwegians have more reason than ever to celebrate the International Day of Happiness.

After ranking fourth for the last two years, Norway jumped three spots and displaced three-time winner Denmark to take the title of "world's happiest country" for the first time.

Denmark dropped to second place this year, followed by Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand and Australia and Sweden (which tied for ninth place), according to the latest World Happiness Report, released in March 2017 by theSustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations.

Denmark has won the title three of the four times the report has been issued, while Switzerland has won the title just once.

The United States came in 14th place, dropping one place from last year.

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Norway, Denmark, Finland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden have what I call "social democratic economies." That is the ideal of a growing percentage of the American people, and not the command economy that existed in the Soviet Union.

The growing popularity of social democracy in the United States helps to explain this:

"The latest Harvard-Harris poll, conducted between October 14 and October 18, affirms that voters are increasingly favoring Sen. Bernie Sanders and progressivism while President Donald Trump’s favorability continues its downward spiral."

 

Yeah, stop your lying and posting distorted numbers to bolster your fake claims...

China has over 600 million people living in poverty. No electricity or running water...

Here are the real numbers DL...


China


United States
Government
12,850€ 2017Q3 Qu. GDP Per Capita € [+]

GDP per capita [+] 2016 7,319€ 51,931€ 2016 GDP per capita [+]


United States and China is the two largest economy of the world. Both country together shares 35.78% and 32.76% of total world's GDP in nominal and PPP terms, respectively. GDP of both country is higher than 3rd ranked country Japan (nominal) and India (PPP) by a huge margin. Therefore, only these two are in competition to become first.

United States has been at first position since long time in both terms - nominal and ppp. But, According to IMF Outlook (October-2014), China is now ahead of US on PPP basis. On exchange rate basis, United States is still at top having GDP 1.68 times more than China. By 2019, this ratio will 1.43.

Overpopulation, pollution and political turmoil is starting to take it's toll on the rising Chinese economy.

Their future may not be as bright as you think DL....

 

What did I lie about? I pointed out that Communist China has the highest gross domestic product (GDP), contrary to your early comment. Then I went on to point out that per capita GDP is a better criterion.

 

A while back we had a similar thread. Some of the people this thread is about posted.
Many of them had huge student loans and a degree. The degree was in something there was not a future in or was a low paying job.
They complained that they could not buy a home. The thing is they had no job, no money, huge student loans, and a worthless degree.
Do you know any bank that would rush to loan them money to buy a home?
Same with a car. They didn't want a used car. They wanted to drive one off the show room floor.
Again, no money or any credit.
Now comes the job they were looking for. They didn't want to start at the bottom. They wanted to start at the top.
No experience at all and a useless degree in basket weaving.
They were all torte up because their parents had something they wanted but they were not willing to work for it.
The everyone gets a trophy mentality came out in them.
They wanted it all. They thought they deserved it all. They were not willing to work to afford it all.

 

If capitalism is dead then why are all the top notch business schools rejecting about 90% of applicants due to no space for that huge number of want to be students. I have one millennial and two Z's. All have full time jobs and work hard. Yes some would rather not work and get paid. Only I get that privilege.

 

Universal healthcare or any of the planks in the Bernie Sanders platform would not be the death knell of capitalism in the US.