Why are the youth turning to socialism?

Jaded youth look to socialism to the cure, unaware that socialism is actually the problem.

Socialism is a dirty word in American politics, so it's surprising to see millions of young people so willingly flocking to it as a political identity. The rise (and pending doom) of a socialist candidate and the shrinking of the middle class is driving this change.

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) - Socialism is common around the world, but it is rare in America. There is one simple reason for this, we've never had much need for it. Free market capitalism has worked better in the USA than anywhere else in the world. For generations, Americans traded honest work for honest wages and everybody was better off for it. What need is there to change a system that provides so much prosperity for all?

This is the system most Americans have known. The American dream is the belief that anyone can rise above their circumstances though hard, persistent effort and good decision-making. Capitalism doesn't promise anything but opportunity, but for most Americans, opportunity has been enough.

Enter the millennials.

For a new generation, there is a powerful understanding taking root. There is the belief that the opportunity is neither real, nor enough.

Millions of young people have been told while growing that college was the ticket to a brighter future. College enrollments have soared. Today, millions of people have degrees, but along with those degrees comes steadily rising student loan debt. Add to this the fact that jobs in industries such as manufacturing have gone overseas while many other jobs are evaporating thanks to technological advances, and the world is proving different from what millennials were promised it would be.

Today, a revolution in robotics and AI threatens to eliminate most manual jobs and a significant percentage of white collar jobs as well.

How should the young feel when they spent their life preparing for a future that no longer exists? How should they feel knowing they will spend much of their adult life repaying loans they accepted for now useless degrees?

Over half-a-million Americans working for minimum wage also have college degrees. For the first time in American history, the poor outnumber the middle class and the middle class is less than 50 percent of the population.

Worker productivity has risen to its highest level yet. Americans are not lazy by any metric. They work longer hours, and produce more value than their European counterparts. They work sick, they work without vacations, and they literally work themselves to death.

Knowing this, millennials have concluded that capitalism won't work for them. Who wants to toil endlessly for a life of poverty and debt? This is why millions of them are flocking to the socialist banner. The free market does not provide the opportunity it once provided the rest of us. And when we tell millennials that if they want a free education, they can simply join the military, it only reinforces their belief that capitalism is ridiculous.

The problem of course is that capitalism is actually just fine. Capitalism remains the single best form of economics to provide opportunity for all. However, capitalism in America has been badly hijacked and we no longer enjoy its benefits. Capitalism in America has already been replaced by socialism -for the rich.

The top 1 percent of income earners own more than half of the nation's wealth. They use that wealth to purchase political influence. This influence keeps wages low, helps to bust unions, and allows trade agreements that puts profits over jobs. Employers shift financial burdens to workers and consumers, and even the government. And they are able to avoid taxes while doing so.

After the 2008 Great Recession, bankers and other members of the 1 percent accepted federal bailouts, then paid themselves over a billion --in new bonuses.

Capitalism's golden age in America was a time of high wages, labor unions and low prices. All this is extinct and it is the youth who feel it more than any other segment of the population. They only want what many of us had -genuine opportunity.

There are some simple ways to correct this problem. For example, give workers raises so they can afford decent livings. The problem is that most employers, who fall into the small category, can't afford to give the raises.

With over 90 percent of the nation's wealth going to the top 1 percent, even the nation's small businesses and private employers are feeling the pain.

Of course, the small employers aren't looking forward to socialism either, because that will bring high taxes they can't avoid, which will kill millions of jobs.

The 1 percent simply has to return to paying their fair share to workers. We need jobs and decent wages to return to the country. Socialism is by no means the answer, but socialism is exactly what we have for the rich who get bailed out and protected by the very legislators they own.

This is why socialism is blooming in America. Unfortunately, it's the wrong cure. We do not need to eat the rich to save ourselves. We only need them to share our productivity like they did decades ago. Stripping away the widely-gamed legal protections that allows them to evade taxes and buy political influence would be an excellent start. It would diminish government corruption and return more power to the people. There would be a boom in America, fueled by the return of capitalism and the end of socialism for the rich. 

Millennials just need to know that socialism is the problem, not the solution.

---

The California Network is the Next Wave in delivery of information and entertainment on pop culture, social trends, lifestyle, entertainment, news, politics and economics. We are hyper-focused on one audience, YOU, the connected generation. JOIN US AS WE REDEFINE AND REVOLUTIONIZE THE EVER-CHANGING MEDIA LANDSCAPE.