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A new Rasmussen poll finds that a full 20 percent of Americans prefer socialism to capitalism. If you look only at those under 30, 37 percent prefer capitalism, 33 percent socialism, and 30 percent are undecided. I think John Judis has the right interpretation of these numbers:
...what those 30 percent of under-thirties probably mean by "socialism" is a much greater degree of government--and public--control of private corporations and of the market. That would put the United States closer, say, to Sweden, France, or Germany, but would not put it anywhere near the old Soviet Union, which tried to abolish the market itself. Most of all, I imagine, it's an expression of extreme disillusionment with the magic of the market as preached by Republicans and some Democrats as well.In other words, younger people are more "social democratic," pushed there, I think, by the anxiety produced by a health care system coupled with employment (during a recession), by the catastrophic costs of higher education, and by support for a much more aggressive response to the climate crisis -- one that doesn't prioritize the concerns of polluting business interests. I also wonder if repeated Republican invocations of the term "socialist" as a slur for Barack Obama had an unexpected effect. After all, young people love Barack Obama! If he's a socialist, maybe they'd like to be socialists as well!--Dana Goldstein
