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A Majority Of Millennials Now Reject Capitalism, Poll Shows (washingtonpost.com)
A new poll shows that a majority of young people do not support capitalism. The study was conducted by Harvard University, which polled young adults ages 18-29. It found that 51 percent of those polled rejected capitalism, that is to say, they did not support it. Only 42 percent said they support capitalism -- there was a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points. When asked what alternative system they would prefer, there wasn't a clear winner. Just 33 percent said they supported socialism. When talking about politics or economics, it can get complicated and the poll does little to shed light on what parts of capitalism young people dislike or what parts of socialism young people like. It does appear to suggest young people are frustrated with the status quo and are more focused on the flaws of free markets.
If you're going to quote Marx, I'd recommend getting right to the end of the books. In a Marx-style communist society, there is very little government because everything is owned locally by the workers. Some of the earliest purges in the Soviet Union were of people who subscribed to Marx's vision and opposed the trend towards central control that people like Stalin were pushing.
Oh, and if you're going to argue 'socialism is scary because Marx viewed it as a step on the road to communism' then you might try going back a couple of chapters and remembering that Marx also argued that capitalism was a step on the same road, in between an agrarian economy and socialism.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Have you ever lived of "government cheese" ? It's not much, you often have to be very very creative to survive on it.
You don't always get it neither: you're not handicapped enough, you have inherited 1/16 of family property (which you can't sell) or have a significant other with a high paying fulltime job.
And if you do finally manage to get it, it binds you to another exhausting set of rules and restrictions.
For me it was eventually just easier to get a job than to plough through all the bureaucracy and this is in socialist paradise (Belgium).
But there are people out there who are discarded by the social system and have to "mooch" of their relatives because
their papers don't have the right stamps or they can't make heads or tails of this always-changing process.
How much experience do you have in Eastern Europe?
I am an American, slightly older than a millennial, but also not a Gen-Xer, and I went to Eastern Europe, and I've stayed there (going on years 8 now).
I earn a 1/3 of what I earned in the US for a similar programming job.
Jobs are plentiful, and there's more demand for developers than there are available people.
I don't need a car, and unlike the cities in the US where you can get away without a car, I'm not paying a premium to live there.
When I need to use a taxi, I rarely spend more than $15 and that's for a 30-40 minute ride to the airport.
If I'm just going around town, it's usually between $2 - $8.
When I rented I paid about $500 month for an apartment in the city center + about $100 for utilities and internet (120 Mb/s).
Now that I own my own property with the money I saved on my Eastern European wages, I spend about $200 a month on taxes and utilities.
My monthly grocery bill for 2 people is between $150 - $200, and we eat well. Because my wife prefers it we get mostly organic veggies and fruits, and high quality cuts of meat. If we wanted to we could cut this bill between 1/4 and 1/2 if we didn't shop at the fancy markets.
If we go out to a restaurant in the touristy part of town that caters to expats, we're hard pressed to spend more than $20 a person on dinner and drinks.
My tax rate is about the same as it was in the US (24.5%).
I have both "free" healthcare and private health insurance (I pay less than $50/month pre-tax for that),
When I need to go to a doctor, I just show them my ID card, I've never had to pay money for anything, not even a deductible (this includes 1 time that I had to have for surgery). Normally I can see the doctor the next day, at most 3 days (and it's a bit longer for me, as i need an English speaking doctor, as I'm not fluent enough for them to allow me to visit a native speaker, to make sure there are no misunderstandings).
The time I needed surgery it took 3 weeks total to arrange.
When my kids are ready for university, it'll be free.
My wife decided to change careers and went back for another Master's degree at the best university in the country for free, Actually better than that, since she was doing very well, she earned a stipend after her first year, and we also received a number of discounts on things for her being a student.
After all of my bills are paid, my left over is 2 - 4 times as much as I was able to save in the US, despite making a lot more money.
So I'm not sure if a visit to Eastern Europe will have quite the impact on their thoughts about how things in the US are going as you think it will.