Why Are so Many Millennials Feeling the Bern?

One of the most stunning results that came out of the Iowa caucuses was the overwhelming support a 74-year-old socialist received from young people. Among voters between the ages of 17 and 29, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders won 84 percent of the vote.

This support is in keeping with a Pew study that shows 42 percent of Millennials favor socialism. In a country built on free markets, personal responsibility, political liberty, and private property rights, this is a disturbing trend.

Why all the newfound love for socialism? There are several reasons that have caused young people to turn a critical eye toward capitalism.

Bad Economy

One of the major reasons they’re open to socialism is the struggling economy, which still hasn’t rebounded from the recession that propelled Obama into office in 2008. Millennials are facing a tougher job market and stagnant wages. They’re not making as much money as their parents did at the same age, and while they’re more educated than previous generations, their education isn’t translating into high incomes and stable employment. They’re also burdened by student debt (47%), credit cards (31%), and auto loans (26%).

Young people want to make money as much as anyone else, but they see their opportunities diminished. They graduate from college and find themselves at home working at a retail store or waiting tables. Some of that has to do with their choice of degree, but even those in the science and technology fields are finding it difficult to get a job.

They’re frustrated because they see businesses going overseas, and they interpret this as greedy corporations wanting to make more money off of cheap labor. Their conclusion is the capitalist system is broken. They sympathize with Occupy Wall Street in feeling like big banks and big businesses are in control of everything, and the “little guy” is being edged out. Little do they understand that many of the problems in today’s economy are rooted in big government, over-regulation, and cronyism. The answer to these problems isn’t socialism but actually freeing the markets to compete in a way that will spur economic growth, which leads me to my next point.

Poor Education

Millennials are poorly educated when it comes to capitalism and the history of socialism and communism. They didn’t live through the Cold War. They’ve benefited from the capitalist system that they are now rejecting, failing to understand the devastating consequences of government imposing its will on the economy. They haven’t been taught the value of private property and how it is essential to liberty.

In history class, they’ve been reading anti-American Marxist Howard Zinn instead of Paul Johnson or David McCullough. As Zinn himself once remarked:

Objectivity is impossible and it is also undesirable. That is, if it were possible it would be undesirable, because if you have any kind of a social aim, if you think history should serve society in some way; should serve the progress of the human race; should serve justice in some way, then it requires that you make your selection on the basis of what you think will advance causes of humanity.

This is the bilge our younger generation has been learning, so is it any wonder they would turn out in droves for Sanders? The fact that he’s an old white guy doesn’t matter to these tattooed, Birkenstock-clad kids sporting pricy graphic T’s from Urban Outfitters and typing away on their iPhones (a great gift of capitalism). They hear his message, and they’re inspired by his call to break up the evil banks, increase regulations on businesses to protect the environment, provide universal healthcare, and make college available to all.

He reminds them of their silver-haired Boomer college professor waxing eloquent about humanity’s progression toward some great utopia. They haven’t benefited from the instruction of Milton Friedman or Friedrich Hayek. They haven’t learned one of the great lessons from history that economic freedom is a necessary condition for political freedom. They haven’t taken an honest look at how the democratic societies in Europe are unraveling, and how, as Margaret Thatcher said, the problem with socialism is you eventually run out of other people’s money.

This ghastly mix of economic stagnancy and mal-education, which pushes young people in a socialist direction, is reinforced by a youthful idealism and a love of equality and “fairness” over freedom.

Youthful Idealism

There is a German phrase that translates to “One who isn’t a socialist at twenty has no heart. One who is a socialist at forty has no brain.” It is often the case that younger people lead with their hearts and run after fanciful idealism because this is simply part of being young.

There are good and bad aspects to this. The good is that we should have a heart for our world, especially those who are suffering the most—the poor and downtrodden. Many young people today are inspired to make a difference in this world and to help those who are not as privileged as they are. This is a noble thing, and more should be done to help the poor.

The problem is many think capitalism and its focus on profit undermines and stands opposed to generosity and compassion. But this is simply not the case. If there is greed and selfishness in the capitalist system, it’s not because of the system itself (which is morally neutral), it is because people are selfish and immoral. This fact won’t change under a socialist system. Compelling people to care for the poor doesn’t change their hearts.

This desire to help others, however, and to be socially responsible is a noble trait among young people. The goal is not to let go of that compassion but to direct it in a healthy way and align it with an economic system that actually promotes liberty so people are free to use their resources in a way that helps others—not only in an altruistic way but in a self-interested way that is rightly understood.

“Self-interest rightly understood” means that we can pursue profit and our own interests but still do so in a way that helps others. People might not always be motivated out of the goodness of their hearts or because of some righteous utopian calling, but that doesn’t mean they won’t help people. Montaigne once wisely said, “When I do not follow the right path for the sake of righteousness, I follow it for having found by experience that all things considered it is commonly the happiest and most useful.”

So few young people, however, have figured this out. Instead of letting people (and markets) be free, they want a higher power (the government) to come in and force people to be generous and compassionate through the redistribution of their property and by regulating what they do with their businesses and their lives. They haven’t learned that this kind of compulsory morality doesn’t work.

The Lure of Equality

This leads me to my next point: the longing for equality. While their desire to make a difference and to show compassion is good, their sense of “fairness” isn’t driven purely by a concern to help others. They’re also driven by an ardent desire for equality. This is an important point in understanding the 84 percent who support Sanders as well as many others in America who demand wealth redistribution and advocate some form of egalitarianism.

We have raised a generation of young people who have been hovered over by helicopter parents making sure everything in their lives is fair. They’ve received participation trophies and participated in sporting events where no one scores. Some have even been in classes where no grades are given. Those who succeed are made to feel guilty, and those who have failed are told it’s not their fault (it’s the teacher, the coach, their parents, the “system”). This is the Rainbow Fish generation in which all the beautiful glittering scales must be equally shared.

It is no surprise then that a generation so fixated on equality instead of being instructed in the hard, messy lessons of freedom favor a system that promises equality of outcomes and is managed by government and its mechanisms of force. This focus on extreme equality is something Americans should have been on guard against since its inception, but we have failed to remain watchful. We have assumed that everyone loves liberty and therefore Americans will do whatever it takes to keep it—politically, socially, and economically.

That has not been the case. Alexis de Tocqueville observed when he came to America in the 19th century that democratic peoples have a “natural taste for freedom.” They seek it and they love it. But they love equality even more.

For equality they have an ardent, insatiable, eternal, invincible passion; they want equality in freedom, and, if they cannot get it, they still want it in slavery. They will tolerate poverty, enslavement, barbarism, but they will not tolerate aristocracy.

Tocqueville said this is true in all times, but it is especially true in America where equality for all is the foundation of our society. He called this desire for equality an “irresistible power,” and any effort to defy it will be overturned and destroyed by it. “In our day, freedom cannot be established without its support, and despotism itself cannot reign without it.”

Just as Tocqueville said, Millennials today—and not just Millennials, but anyone who wants big government to “equalize” everything—are driven by a desire for equality. This desire has been fostered in three ways: by a natural (and good) propensity toward equality, by increased inequality in our country because of the growth of government and crony corporatism, and by an overly indulged sense of equality due to being raised by authority figures promising equal outcomes.

Equality and Freedom

These three strands woven together are creating a demand for equality that overshadows liberty. One would think young people would see how their freedoms are being lost in their desire for equality at all costs (even to the point of giving more power to the government in every aspect of their lives), but as Tocqueville observed, the loss of liberty is not so immediately apparent in our lives because the negative impact of that loss happens slowly over time.

The loss of equality, however, hits us like a ton of bricks. It’s right in our faces. We immediately see that someone has more money than us. We see whole groups unable to gain traction in a failing economy. We see the one percent getting richer and the middle class shrinking. We see laws favoring those with money while those without power or money struggle. In a sense, a class system—and an aristocracy of sorts—has developed.

This breeds discontent, and if that discontent is justified by a wrong or nonexistent understanding of economics and free markets, if that discontent is supported by religious systems that denounce the West and its capitalist system as being evil as Pope Francis has done, and if that discontent is reinforced by a pop culture in which music and film denigrate the “greedy rich” and romanticize the “working people,” then we have what we see today: a younger generation that favors socialism.

We can take some comfort in the fact Millennials that don’t really understand socialism or that their political views are incoherent and contradictory. We can also look forward to them growing up and developing a more conservative mindset as many of us have done. But some of these core problems remain, and the issue of equality over freedom will continue.

The only way to right that ship is by bringing more equality to our society by freeing up opportunities and putting an end to cronyism, which favors the rich on Wall Street and empowers Washington; by reforming our education system and teaching our children the truth about economic liberty; by raising children with the hard lessons of competition and freedom instead of pampering them with distorted notions of fairness and equality; and by fostering a true love for one another so we care for the poor and show compassion, giving out of the goodness of our hearts and even a right sense of self-interest instead of being compelled by the heavy hand of big brother.

If we make progress in all these areas, then maybe we can stop the drift toward socialism. If we don’t, like Tocqueville said, equality will be pursued even if it means the enslavement of us all. (For more from the author of “Why Are so Many Millennials Feeling the Bern?” please click HERE)

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