Why So Many Millennials Are Socialists

[AuH20]

At some point, this trend will reverse itself. Granted, life as we know it may dramatically change, but socialism always flames out. Socialism can only conceal the stimuli of reality for so long.

 

[RJ Liberty]

Super easy. But you have to want to get out. Most people would rather just be more comfortable where they are.

That was not my experience, and I doubt that since you believe it was "super easy" for you to go from poor to middle-class (or higher?) that you were ever actually truly poor. Most people aren't poor because they want to be poor. For the most part, the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor over the course of their lifetimes.

 

[UWDude]

All thinkers with followers or influence develop cults to some extent or another. Look at the Founding Father cult around RPFs, for example. What makes any better than the others is a matter of opinion.

In the world of idealism, (where RPF was born and raised), the term "better" itself, is up for debate.

In the world of reality, most people do not define socialism like Mises or Rothbard does, therefore, they may claim they may endorse socialism, that does not mean they endorse the Rothardian or Mises school definition of socialism.

Diggin' me yet?

 

[UWDude]

Super easy.

Bullshit. You know it, and I know it. If it were super easy, then every fucking person in the world would do it.


It's not "super easy" at all. And if it is, you are either really talented, or have privilege others don't. Yeah, I used that word, deal with it. Digest it, understand it, then you will find enlightenment.

 

[CaptUSA]

I doubt that since you believe it was "super easy" for you to go from poor to middle-class (or higher?) that you were ever actually truly poor.

Bullshit. You know it, and I know it. If it were super easy, then every fucking person in the world would do it.


It's not "super easy" at all. And if it is, you are either really talented, or have privilege others don't. Yeah, I used that word, deal with it. Digest it, understand it, then you will find enlightenment.

Ok, doubters... for your benefit:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/entry.php?1063-My-personal-story-(pt-1)
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/entry.php?1064-My-personal-story-(pt2)

Read those and then stop whining. UWDude, you speak about privilege. Yes, my privilege was being poor. It taught me truths about the world that many people never learn.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

Related:

Starving on the Prosciutto-and-Brie Poverty Diet

 

[VIDEODROME]

Ok, doubters... for your benefit:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/entry.php?1063-My-personal-story-(pt-1)
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/entry.php?1064-My-personal-story-(pt2)

Read those and then stop whining. UWDude, you speak about privilege. Yes, my privilege was being poor. It taught me truths about the world that many people never learn.

I think what I was questioning the 'Old Model' of a long term career hoping to get rewarded for company loyalty(not just time for seniority, but being there for the work), or maybe there was a misunderstanding. It does seem like eventually even you went through a variety of jobs instead of staying at the store.

Also, I might be coming from a Michigan bias because we used to have the idea of life-long auto manufacturing jobs and we've had that industry and this state go through lots of economic turmoil.

Anyway, this topic is starting to drift a bit. To be honest, sometimes to me it seems like dumping on the younger generation seems like an old meme. Maybe for some strange reason, it's tempting to see them as lazy and spoiled by technology. To be fair, maybe a lot of them are, but I think a lot of them are willing to buckle down and work.

I was born in 1976 so I'm not quite a Millennial, but maybe I feel close enough to that generation to sympathize with the changing economy they've had to figure out. Not to say that justifies waiting for a handout and not working, but maybe they want to deal with a system that doesn't feel rigged. The catch here is that many people on this forum think Government involvement leads to a rigged system while possibly some of these Millennials feel laissez faire becomes rigged by default after a few very powerful corporations start to dominate over the economy.

I guess only Millennials themselves could give a real answer.

 

[Philhelm]

I have yet to meet one who knows how to count money. There is the high school *honor student* who tried to pay me $12 for a $9 purchase. "I'm, like, bad with money."

(S)he was just adjusting for inflation.

 

[DamianTV]

Ive made a couple posts about several points of views that I think Millennials have, such as they are taught Socialism, they are manipulated, lack of ability to understand the failures of Socialism (because it isnt taught), manipulation, etc., so here is another one.

One of the reasons that I think "all kids are rebellious" toward adults as they grow up isnt entirely a growth phase into independence from their parental figures, but rather because they see what has worked for others is not going to work for them, and they have no desire to turn out like the majority of people, poor. The middle class is pretty much gone. For those that are still left in some semblance of what used to be the middle class, they are no where nearly as well off as their parents were. I dont pussyfoot around when I talk to youth about their future. I tell them the truth as best as I see it. The current and older generations have exploited Socialism to literally steal their future, and they are going to experience a Paradigm Shift the likes of which the world has never seen. Their futures are exceptionally uncertain. I cant maintain the lie that my parents told me. Work hard, get an education, get a job, and you'll do great. It isnt for lack of motivation that so many people today are held back, it is lack of opportunity to move forward. So what worked for my parents definitely did not work for me, and I have no expectations that those younger than me should do what I have done as my parents expected me to follow in their footsteps as that definitely has not worked out at all for nearly every member of Generation X.

In a nutshell, we spent your retirement and inheritance, and sorry to say, but financially, youre all fucked.

I think that as a result of having been told the truth, they may very well turn against the concepts of Liberty and Freedom, Lassiez Faire Economics because those are things that Gen-X'ers hold on to. They seem to collectively know they got fucked and are trying something different, and what they are embracing is Socialism, because it is the great fiction spread by governments which will allow them to survive, but at the expense of everyone else. Those who they would like to live at the expense of are both governments and their parents, who they may see as the ones that fucked their future, and sadly, I think they are at least somewhat correct.

(Generation X: Born between roughly 1961 and 1979)

 

[VIDEODROME]

Work hard, get an education, get a job, and you'll do great. It isnt for lack of motivation that so many people today are held back, it is lack of opportunity to move forward. So what worked for my parents definitely did not work for me, and I have no expectations that those younger than me should do what I have done as my parents expected me to follow in their footsteps as that definitely has not worked out at all for nearly every member of Generation X.

This is a major point I was driving at. It seems like even CaptainUSA moved around the job market and I think Millennials would do so even more because they just don't see long term stability.

Also, every one wants experience. One result of this is Millennials might be looking at their ideal company they're not quite qualified for, then go work for a smaller company purely for that training and experience never intending to stick around. Then the smaller companies piss and moan after being shafted to quitters and say none of these young people want to work.

 

[RJ Liberty]

Ok, doubters... for your benefit:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/entry.php?1063-My-personal-story-(pt-1)
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/entry.php?1064-My-personal-story-(pt2)

Read those and then stop whining.

What was the "super easy" part? According to your own blog, you started off as a kid "working hard" (your own words), and spent years and years working your way up the ladder: several summers in an ice cream parlor, then nine years working at a grocery store, then three more years unloading docks at a department store, then you worked "long" hours in a steel mill working "hard" (your words), then years as a meter reader before getting your associate and then your bachelors, while working fifty-hour work weeks. After getting your degrees, you're pulling in great money.

All of this is great, and is a great story of self-determination, but it does not support in any way your earlier claim that getting out of poverty was "super easy". You worked hard. Which is what people should do. But "working hard", by definition, is not "super easy". And your own story states that you got a lot of breaks: your company looked the other way when you didn't have a degree, and later paid for the degree. Not everyone gets those breaks.

Your early story closely resembles my own, if you substituted "shitty rented house" for "shitty apartment". And just like you and many others, I worked hard to get where I am. You undervalue your own hard work when you say it was "super easy" to get where you are in life.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

In the world of idealism, (where RPF was born and raised), the term "better" itself, is up for debate.

In the world of reality, most people do not define socialism like Mises or Rothbard does, therefore, they may claim they may endorse socialism, that does not mean they endorse the Rothardian or Mises school definition of socialism.

Diggin' me yet?

Ah, the game of semantics. Natch. Newspeak is par for the course in politics.

 

[UWDude]

Ok, doubters... for your benefit:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/entry.php?1063-My-personal-story-(pt-1)
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/entry.php?1064-My-personal-story-(pt2)

Read those and then stop whining. UWDude, you speak about privilege. Yes, my privilege was being poor. It taught me truths about the world that many people never learn.

Read those and then stop whining.

Fuck you too.

And uh, no, it wasn't easy. So thanks for proving my point.

You may be a hard worker, and you probably were hoping for validation for that, but instead, I'll just say you are a bragging jack-ass, because instead of answering my question, you just bragged about how hard you worked, to prove it was "super easy" to get where you were, and too fucking stupid to even notice how hilariously arrogant you were being.

"super easy" LoL!!!

You may be a hard worker, but you clearly are a braggart so dumb you would brag to disprove yourself

Oh, and again:


Read those and then stop whining.

You deserve this post for saying I was whining, when I was not.

 

[CaptUSA]

What was the "super easy" part?

And uh, no, it wasn't easy. So thanks for proving my point.

Oh geez. You two completely misunderstood the whole point of that story. (Purposefully, I'm sure.) We were talking about how easy it is to get out of poverty.

It is super easy to get ahead in life by providing more value than your peers. You don't need special privileges. It's totally up to you.

You guys were acting like it didn't matter how much value you provided, you'd still get screwed. You were saying this was the reason people turned to socialism - because economic mobility was too hard. That's a BS excuse.

It's not difficult to work be a hard worker. You own your own labor - it's the easiest thing to do. As I tell my son, "It's not hard to work hard." (I feel sorry for you, if you disagree) And if you paid attention to that story, you'd see that it was super easy to get more money. Hell, they were throwing it at me.

After getting your degrees, you're pulling in great money.

The money preceded the degrees. I never needed them. In fact, the degrees were just another form of compensation.

 

[devil21]

"Yelp was right to fire entitled millennial who whined about her salary online"
http://nypost.com/2016/02/24/yelp-w...illennial-who-whined-about-her-salary-online/

 

[kahless]

And why are you probably broke, root-cause? GOVERNMENT

Why can you not afford college or training? GOVERNMENT

Why is cost of living high? GOVERNMENT

Oh bullshit. Nobody is disparaging the poor. We take issue with the dogpile attitudes of these people who have no guts or grit and want everything handed to them on a platter. Have you not been paying attention to these foul-mouthed, dull-witted, proudly ignorant fops who demand they be provided with beer and blowjobs? Christ on a crutch man... take a look around you and see the raving madness. Students who demand "safe space" and all their talk of "triggers" and "micro-aggression". They are trying to get as much for nothing as they can possibly manage, and it appears that at least thus far they are making a good go of it. I see it every single day without fail. It is in the media, the places I frequent (Charleston WV is a den of liberal iniquity), and so on.

To assert that we are disparaging the poor indicates you are either not paying attention or are playing games. I don't know which. I would never disparage anyone for being poor. I was not exactly rolling in the dough, growing up. But I worked and made something of myself, meager as it may be, and despite my currently tough circumstance, I blame nobody (save maybe governmental interference) for my situation. I ask no aid from others, much less demand it. I will either swim or I will die ignominiously under a bridge one day. But I will never try to pick YOUR pocket of your presumably hard-earned property. If that renders me "willfully ignorant", then fine, I will wear the banner with pride.

You presume not only too much, but the wrong things. Read what is written and not what you want to see.

That all aside, if you are broke and so on, what exactly are the rest of us to do about it? What is your remedy? I know mine. I'd like to hear what you have to say on the matter. How is this to be corrected and what is your vision of a "proper" societal arrangement?

Millennials are poor and YOU are collectively disparaging all of them in your first post and this one. Sure there are some like you describe at these left wing colleges but that does not constitute millennials as a whole. What you are doing amounts to spouting establishment talking points that are used to cover for the mess they made of the economy and high unemployment rate among millennials.

You however got it right in those first three sentences that the blame is GOVERNMENT.

Years ago a young person could graduate high school, work at the local factory, marry and have kids on a single salary and a few short years later own a home. All at a very young age, on a single salary and without a college education.

To cover for the mess the establishment has made of the economy, the young are told they have to pay their dues up to 30 years old which means working jobs where you do not earn enough to support yourself. If you object to that then you are just a lazy millennial. With Republicans and Libertarians not speaking up for their economic plight and actually condoning policies that created this situation they have no where else to go other than the Socialist Democrats.

This is all due to both parties and Libertarians worshiping at the altar of opens borders and free trade. They have destroyed the US economy and the ability of millennials to work to support themselves at a very young age.

In my life time I have watched the devastation to communities throughout NY state which now look like Dresden after WWII. The jobs went overseas since we can't compete with child labor and people working 18 hours a day x 360 days a year overseas. There was nothing left to take its place and the American people were sold an impossible fairly tale it would work because we would all be "high tech" workers.

The few jobs that remained were taken by the immigrant invasion which dramatically drove down wages for American citizens. The migrants would work for practically nothing with a dozen of them bedded up in a small apartments and homes.

This was a direct attack on the quality of life on all American citizens including millennials by proponents of open borders and unbalanced trade policies. The wealthy, elite and political establishment are so far removed from the plight of the average American they do not see or do not give a damn since they are benefactor of such polices.

 

[erowe1]

Years ago a young person could graduate high school, work at the local factory, marry and have kids on a single salary and a few short years later own a home. All at a very young age, on a single salary and without a college education.

That's no less possible today.

 

[tod evans]

That's no less possible today.

Oh bullshit!

 

[erowe1]

Oh bullshit!

Maybe not necessarily in a factory as often as it used to be. But with some job or other, yeah, it's still true.

[video]http://reason.com/reasontv/2008/02/03/living-large[/video]

 

[PaleoPaul]

Millennial here (born in 1989) and proud Capitalist Pig.

That being said, many in my generation are socialist because the majority of us came of age in 2007, when the economy was slowing down just before the 2008 financial crisis.