Is Opposition to Capitalism By Young Adults Really Just Opposition To The Monster Tech Oligopoly?

Have you seen all the recent headlines about growing opposition to capitalism among young Americans? Here are just two of many such headlines:

Majority of young adults in US hold negative view of capitalism (The Hill)

Majority of Gen Z Americans Hold Negative Views of Capitalism: Poll (Newsweek)

The reporting on peoples’ views on capitalism and socialism assumes that it is a simple binary choice, that is, if you oppose one you favor the other. As a free marketeer who is passionately opposed to socialism, I’ll tell you right now that I do not approve of our current system, where a cartel of monster monopolies are able to control almost all communication, commerce, and money exchanges in this country. If that is considered “capitalism,” then I’m opposed to this version of capitalism.

Even worse, the present libertarian/capitalist attitude toward tyranny is that it is perfectly acceptable to suppress personal liberty so long as the tyranny has been outsourced to monopolies in the private sector - monopolies who can crush all competition and dissent in a manner that the government is prohibited from doing.

For young adults in their 20s who have only seen the freedom-smothering power of our current oligopoly, they might well think more government control of the economy is preferable to the FANG executives determining what speech and commerce is allowable.

Oh, support for capitalism is even dropping among young Republicans.

Brad Polumbo of the Foundation For Economic Education (and also a contributor to faux-conservative magazines Washington Examiner and National Review) is a classic Principled Free Trader™ who seems rather passionate in his desire to ship American jobs to China. He’s “puzzled that support for capitalism is precipitously dropping among young Republicans, too.”

In 2019, 81% of Republicans and GOP leaners age 18-34 had a positive view of capitalism; today, that number has fallen to 66%,” the survey finds.

Frankly, these results should be alarming for those who believe in free-market capitalism. It’s bad enough that society overall and young people overall are drifting toward socialism, but to be losing ground on the young Right is even more cause for concern.

From student loan debt to jobs and opportunity to climate change and all the other issues young people care about today, we must do our utmost to explain how big government, not free-market capitalism, is what’s really causing the problem.

Well Brad, maybe young conservatives are not seeing a lot of “free-market” in your version of capitalism.

If “capitalism” means the government crushes small businesses in the name of pandemic safety, thus allowing the FANGs to capture that business and grow even richer and more powerful, then I oppose that form of “capitalism.”

If “capitalism” means corporate executives enrich themselves by shuttering American manufacturing plants and replacing American jobs with slave labor at state-controlled Chinese companies, then yes, I oppose that form of “capitalism” too.

Here’s the deal, one can be opposed to state-control of the economy and one can also be opposed to a private sector cartel controlling the economy.

In fact, to stanch the growing appeal of socialism, it is necessary to re-introduce the idea of competitive capitalism. We can break the big non-competitive monopolies into small companies that have to compete. And if they’re still able to exercise monopoly power, they can be broken up even further.

Some Teddy Roosevelt style trust-busting can help restore genuine free-market capitalism.

"Our aim is not to do away with corporations; on the contrary, these big aggregations are an inevitable development of modern industrialism. ... We are not hostile to them; we are merely determined that they shall be so handled as to subserve the public good. We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth." - Theodore Roosevelt

If we want the next generation to embrace capitalism, they must see it as being synonymous with freedom.

“Let us henceforth make war on all monopolies—whether corporate or union. The enemy of freedom is unrestrained power, and the champions of freedom will fight against the concentration of power wherever they find it.” ― Barry M. Goldwater

Perhaps the opposition to capitalism is simply an opposition to the concentration of power. Let’s break up that concentration of power to save capitalism.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 03:02 PM

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