Why millennials are embracing socialism | Hacker News Reader

Why millennials are embracing socialism

cnbc.com

12 pointsskhatri115 comments

Since the article doesn't even attempt to answer the question, instead getting lost in a meandering, Randian path of complaint about cronyism and the government... let's give it a shot.

1) Millenials aren't idiots and don't think socialism is the same thing as Communism.

2) Millenials are also closing in on the age where they get booted off their parents health insurance, and might be forced to be pay ACA if they aren't in an HMO or qualify for Medicaid.

3) They look at socialized medicine and think, hey, if only.

This almost certainly doesn't cover the 4 in 10 they throw out as a number in the article, but at least I tried.

4) Many of them do not see opportunity in line with the cost of living and standard of living expectations they may have.

Good try! Maybe we will get some more. IMHO, this is a worthy discussion.

I thought they were embracing socialism because their parents after supporting them as adults for six to eight years (or longer) are starting to tire of it; and the government looks like the next best place to look for free handouts.

This is what happens when you have a generation where everybody gets an award.

By "supporting them as adults for six to eight years (or longer)" do you mean through college and graduate or professional school? If so, have you compared the costs of higher education (yes, inflation adjusted) in 1975 and 2015? A lot of us boomers contributed a good share of the costs of our colleges, but that was not because we were rugged individualists and hadn't received trophies at the end of every soccer season; it was because it was a lot more doable.

(And some of my college was paid for by Social Security survivor's benefits from a deceased parent. The first year of the Reagan Administration saw recipients cut off at the age of 18: I would have had subsidies cut off after one quarter of school, not three years. If having received this makes me a fellow traveler, so be it.)

This is hardly a new phenomenon. There is a reason that variations of the quote:

"If a man is not a socialist by the time he is 20, he has no heart. If he is not a conservative by the time he is 40, he has no brain"

have been floating around since at least the 20's.

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