The Daily Populous Wednesday July 7th, 2021 day edition
Authored by iea.org.uk and submitted by Codimus123

Research from the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) confirms younger people are hostile to capitalism and hold positive views of socialist alternatives.

The new paper should act as a “wake up call” to supporters of the market economy. The rejection of capitalism may be an abstract aspiration – but so too was Brexit.

A Forefront Market Research poll commissioned by the IEA of just under 2,000 people aged between 16 and 34 in the UK, carried out between February and March 2021, found that:

67 per cent say they would like to live in a socialist economic system.

75 per cent agree with the assertion that climate change is a specifically capitalist problem.

78 per cent blame capitalism for Britain’s housing crisis.

72 per cent support the (re-)nationalisation of various industries such as energy, water and the railways.

72 per cent believe that private sector involvement would put the NHS at risk.

75 per cent agree with the statement that ‘socialism is a good idea, but it has failed in the past because it has been badly done’.

New IEA research, titled ‘and authored by Head of Political Economy Dr Kristian Niemietz,analyses the economic attitudes of Millennials and Generation Z towards socialism and capitalism.Young people associate ‘socialism’ predominantly with positive terms, such as ‘workers’, ‘public’, ‘equal’ and ‘fair’. Very few associate it with ‘failure’ and virtually nobody associates it with Venezuela, the erstwhile showcase of ‘21st Century Socialism’. Capitalism, meanwhile, is predominantly associated with terms such as ‘exploitative’, ‘unfair’, ‘the rich’ and ‘corporations’.Supporters of the market economy often dismiss support for left-wing ideas as a phase young people have always gone through. But capitalists can no longer reassure themselves that the young will “grow out of it”. This polling finds little difference in attitudes between Millennial and Gen Z: where it does exist, it indicates Zoomers will “grow into it” rather than Millennials “out”.As Niemietz argues, none of the survey results mean that supporters of capitalism should throw in the towel, concede defeat in the battle of ideas and just accept that the future belongs to socialism.Instead, they should take ‘Millennial Socialism’ far more seriously than they currently do. They should treat it as a challenge and engage with it, rather than dismiss it or deny it exists.

the_exile83 on July 7th, 2021 at 10:26 UTC »

I've said it before in similar posts on reddit, but I've never known a bunch of generations looking forward to the older generation dying so we can all start living. Boomers have wrecked their children's and grandchildrens lives by voting and continuing to vote for their own selfish interests rather than the interests of their kids.

pajamakitten on July 6th, 2021 at 20:51 UTC »

I want to work and that to pay me enough to live a decent life. I don't want anything fancy but the fact that something as basic as a house/flat is out of reach for me as a single person shows how broken the system is. You cannot blame young people from turning away from capitalism when it benefits so few of them.

Redsetter on July 6th, 2021 at 20:35 UTC »

I’m not dismissing this because of the source but it’s the IEA. If you don’t know who they are

The IEA subscribes to a right-wing and neoliberal worldview and advocates positions based on this ideology, including climate change denial, and total privatisation, in effect abolition, of the National Health Service. The IEA is secretly funded by the tobacco industry, and IEA officers have been recorded offering "Cash for Access".

My guess is they need some contributions and they are activating their base.