"Young people more likely to favor socialism"

One of Winston Churchill's wonderful sayings: "If you are young and not liberal, then you have no heart; but if you are old and not conservative, then you have no brain".

I never had a heart then.

Not news to me.

I have no use for the mediocrity of socialism, and I despise parasites.

I do not really have a problem with somebody who loses their job being on some form of bare MINIMUM social support for a few months while they find another job, or even for a few years as they get job training and work in a new industry. But the women on it should be on mandatory birth control, (men too once male birth control is invented) drug tests should be mandatory and routine, a few hours per week should be mandated for community service, finances should be regularly audited as well as any government housing provided should be inspected, and I mean a military style inspection like our soldiers go through in a barracks.

And there should be a total lifetime limit of how long any one person can be on the dole. Getting knocked up with another kid while on the dole should automatically disqualify someone for further aid, and if people don't like it, well get the fuck off of it.

What I'd offer is just enough to cover the bare minimum of expenses, food, shelter, utilities, and a small clothing allowance given after the first 6 months. Job training in a real field (trade schools, engineering, sciences, no sociology or literature or art history etc) child care during training and community service hours and during a schedule block of time during the work week for the person on the dole to go look for work.

Several reasons.

1. Stupidity.

2. Crappier education than we had, say, 30-40 years ago

3. There are not any consequential socialist economies any more to look and laugh at, like China in the 70s.

4. The biggest: they have not yet lived through a ripping capitalistic economic recovery like we had under Reagan. That will make you a capitalist for life. UNBELIEVABLE roaring economic activity. People making fortunes all around. We made enough money to bury the USSR.

Bring back decent economic/tax policies, watch the economy take off like a rocket, and even the idiot kids will figure it out.

I'm all for blasting stupid people Chester, but in this case I think its ignorance

On paper socalism sounds like a much better deal than capitalism as we see it being practiced in america today - everybody gets paid, every body gets stuff.

The problem is most of the children of the WW2 thru Veitnam era have never seen socalism in action - most of them have never left the country except maybe a foray or to into canada or mexico to get wasted.

And in they dont understand that america funds most of worlds entitelment programs. They believe that all the tax they paid stays in america.

The dont understand that they are the ones who are primarily funding NATO and the the UN and nearly every 'disater relief' effort on the planet.

They see the EU's "free" medical care and wonder why it costs so much in america.

I can see why the ignorant think socalism is a good idea - we just need to make them aware of the fact that globally we already ARE for all intents and purposes socialist, and that out current situation is a direct result of socialism and the rest of the world using us to fund themselves

"It's not clear why young people have evidently begun to change their thinking on socialism."

Hey, Twinkles - not having to work for a living just might be your clue.

That seems like a huge jump for such a short period of time. It could just be a problem with the poll, or with how it was reported. According to Pew Research, "Socialism is a negative for most Americans, but certainly not all. Six-in-ten (60%) say they have a negative reaction to the word; 31% have a positive reaction. Those numbers are little changed from when the question was last asked in April 2010."

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2159/socialism-capitalism-occupy-wall-street-libertarian-liberal-conservative

Unless a lot of people over 29 suddenly shifted their thinking on socialism as well, something doesn't add up.

For further reading: Proofiness by Charles Seife.

Lori's right, when you see such a marked flip in preferences so quickly it's typically an indication that some other influence is affecting the results, or that they are insignificant.

That said, I'm surprised that 120% of young people don't look favorably on Socialism. Because what's represented as Socialism in the US is nothing like Socialism as a form of government and political economy. Rather it's a never never land where everything is free, there's no prejudice or violence, no corruption, and everyone is wiser and cooler than in the US.

As the joke goes - nowhere is Socialism viewed more favorably than in America.

I'd take any findings from Pew with a grain of salt. They're basically a left wing advocacy group that poses as a research organization.

Williamson's comment about "perpetual adolescence" is dead on and perhaps more precise than he realized. Using socialist means, the nannies of society and government have extended adolescence into the twenties.

Point about statistics: while many "young people" may not support socialism by name, they support it by method. Occupy Wall Street was a Marxist/socialist movement in all but name.

"That seems like a huge jump for such a short period of time." Correlates with the increase in college attendance. Pretty much the breeding ground for rose glass socialism. Also the self interest of all those liberal arts degrees.

The basics of Marx are quite often misunderstood. Those that preach individual liberties and Marxism (common on the left) are simply ignorant of what Marx meant. Marx was all about destroying the individual for the greater good. Which is bad enough when the leader of this mess has the greater good in mind and not his own greater good. Much worse when they are a self serving, paranoid sociopaths.