25 points karakoram 2 hours ago 15 comments

spottedmarley 1 hour ago | parent

Always good to see minorities making progress to increase their population numbers.

toomuchtodo 1 hour ago | parent

> Always good to see minorities making progress to increase their population numbers.

No need to be racist because young people have observed that capitalism has failed. A bit of cognitive dissonance that wealthy people and capitalism supporters thought the capital aggregation machine could run forever based on decomposing the existing system state when a majority of Americans cannot meet their basic needs on their incomes and the only thing that would fix that would be their income going up. Support for unions is also at record highs, for obvious reasons.

Olds will keep aging out (~2M/year 55+ cohort), young people will keep supporting socialism as long as capitalism in its current form keeps squeezing them for profits with nothing left to show for it. Lots of wealth comes from systemic economic exploitation, and progress is being made to reduce that economic exploitation. If it destroys wealth, that's fine, wealth is not the target, quality of life is. Wealth is undemocratic power and control beyond a threshold.

> Most notably, positive ratings of capitalism and free enterprise are higher among older than younger age groups, while positive views of socialism are lower. Adults aged 18 to 34 view socialism more positively than capitalism (57% vs. 43%, respectively), while those aged 55 and older view capitalism more positively than socialism by an even larger margin (65% vs. 34%). Adults aged 35 to 54 rate the two systems about the same.

Older folks got lucky with asset appreciation and good cashflow opportunities (needed to acquire assets that appreciated) over the last 50 years, and so they're happy with the dysfunction because it worked out for them. They will support capitalism through their rigid mental model and their votes (and therefore, political influence) until they age out and are replaced through electorate turnover with younger people who were not so lucky and so have different socioeconomic views based on the current macro and the forward trajectory versus history.

Citations:

In 2025, 49 percent of adults under age 30 lived with a parent [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49810905 - September 2026

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700907

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49357337

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49027462

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46529387

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45851620

(think in systems, almost the same system as religious folks rapidly aging out in the US: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49644302 ; capitalism is just another religion and belief system aging out)

yunwal 1 hour ago | parent

In my view, it's not that socialism with a lowercase s as defined by worker ownership of the means of production has gotten way more popular, it's that "Socialist" has shifted to mean New Deal Democrat as the Democratic party has shifted towards being the party of business interests.

If you look at what Mamdani, arguably the face of American Socialism, is doing in NYC, it's basically deciding to hold businesses accountable for breaking laws and noticing where markets have failed to provide core needs in the city.

ekjhgkejhgk 42 minutes ago | parent

> it's not that socialism with a lowercase s as defined by worker ownership of the means of production has gotten way more popular,

That's not the definition of socialism in any case.

OkayPhysicist 22 minutes ago | parent

That is a perfectly workable definition of socialism. Literally textbook. I would expect any red-blooded Leftist to agree with the statement "The means of production belong in the hands of the proletariat", or they're just fucking posers.

Please, Mister or Missues Vanguard of Leftist Vocabulary, enlighten us on what "Socialism" really means.

feverzsj 53 minutes ago | parent

Retro socialism: "The public owns everything".

Modern socialism: "You'll own nothing and be happy".

cwillu 36 minutes ago | parent

Beats the current state of owning nothing and not being happy.

Varelion 24 minutes ago | parent

You're describing capitalism. You can make a lot more money not yielding ownership.

elar_verole 31 minutes ago | parent

You gotta love that only 65% of the """leftist""" party's voters in the US have positive views on Socialism.

OkayPhysicist 15 minutes ago | parent

The Dems have never called themselves leftist. They are quite eager to point out that they are the Neoliberal party: “We’re capitalist, and that’s just the way it is,” - Nancy Pelosi.

Unfortunately, when you've got 2 choices, one being "Let's round up the pinkos" and the other being "Nothing will fundamentally change", the actual Leftists have to choose the lesser of two evils.

elar_verole 9 minutes ago | parent

Yes agreed. That's kinda what I wanted to highlight. There is no real political pluralism for people in the US which must suck

Varelion 25 minutes ago | parent

Maybe we will see real change soon.

wronex 17 minutes ago | parent

In Sweden we often think of our selves as socialist. I suspect it means something very different across the pond. Anyone care to elaborate on the differences?

quickthrowman 11 minutes ago | parent

The word “socialist” was strongly associated with the USSR in the Cold War era United States. Anyone advocating for socialism was dismissed as a red pinko commie spy.

See Joseph McCarthy, HUAC, Hollywood blacklists, J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO and other domestic surveillance programs for a small slice of anti-communist efforts in the Cold War US.

RicoElectrico 12 minutes ago | parent

USA is approximately the only developed country in which people consistently vote against their interest.