Why does the youth of today seem to hate capitalism?
Although I am generalising a tad, it would seem that people under the age of 21 are completely obsessed with crushing capitalism. They are under the illusion that capitalism is awful, yet they stand there, sipping a frappa-latta-mocha-hocha-choca-cino from Starbucks whilst tweeting their friends on their iPhones, unaware that they are examples of capitalism! Why is this so?
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"unaware that they are examples of capitalism" - well, there's half the problem. Many protestors don't fully grasp what they are supposedly against. They see a CEO earning millions and immediately start crying about the evils of capitalistic greed. But it's not capitalism, it's just greed. 1
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Strictly speaking, a powerful CEO earning millions isn't even greed, it's business sense. If you own a business, and you appoint someone to take care of it completely, and they has billions of dollars of power, it's worth spending a percentage more to reassure you that they'll do a good job. High pay for CEOs follows economic theories, it makes sense, but it also makes no sense at the same time. It's a surprisingly common trend in economics. Yes, I do think you are generalizing too much. I've actually in my entire life maybe ran into 2 or 3 Americans who actually support the idea of communism. Mostly what I see is whenever someone suggests checks and balances on the power inherent within a capitalist economy called communism, ergo loaded language "communism" incorrectly applied to those who feel capitalism needs checks and balances. And I also see support for social programs in any form, which is not equal to a communist society, also labeled "communism" incorrectly. If you are talking about support for these things, I'm not sure the numbers who support these are any greater in the youth. Perhaps the naturally more hopeful nature of youth combined with (still generalizing) less understanding of the complexity of an economy this large and the different and many nuances of democratic government, give it the outside appearance of support for a very generalized definition of "communism"? I think though if you did take polls, ironically perhaps, You'd find the most support for programs like unemployment, social security, education grants and others highest among the very old who still have memory in large part of what it was like before these things were put in place. I'm just guessing though... well the Social Security one is true but I'm guessing with the others. I don't know. Unless you have statistics on some sudden increase in support for communism among the youth I think your premise is incorrect. 1
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Yeah, I need to change the wording from "communist"" to "anti-capitalist". I am unaware of the situation in America, but here in Britain, we have recently seen some fairly large protests by anti-capitalists. 80% of the people protesting were of a young age. Bear in mind that they weren't, as you say, protesting for checks and balances. They were flat out looking for an alternative to capitalism. I would guess that at least some of these people would have suggested some derivation of Marxism. I also see certain aspects of communism actually being turned in to capitalist business. For example: Che Guevara. When you look at the facts, then you will find that he was a monumental failure, who is second only to Castro in the contribution of misery to Cuba. Yet his face is emblazoned on the shirts of many young people. There is even a website called "thechestore" which sells Che Guevara merchandise. I just don't see why it appears to be more appealing to younger people than older people. Memories of the Cold War perhaps? Side: hopeful nature
I've seen a little bit about the English protests, but it isn't covered that well here. Perhaps an overreaction to the Austerity Measures? I saw a lot of the student grants were cut the same week as the millions upon millions of dollars of wedding frenzy with the Prince Harry thing a while back (how you guys stomach your royalty is beyond my comprehension). Couple images like that with corporate record profits right after bailouts and little to none reinvested, anger is more than understandable I think. I doubt given the choice and understanding they would actually choose communism though. Likely its symbolism for more equality in their heads. I'd be surprised if 1/10 knew the name of the dude on their shirt, but perhaps England has an entirely separate problem. Side: hopeful nature
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Because Che Guevara t-shirts are trendy. Seriously, though, loads of people seem to have no ability to connect what they actually want with what they claim to support. You have no idea how many young people have told me they're Democrat because they want small government and less taxes and "fuck the feds, man." This is the same kind of person, I think, who uses their iPhone to bitch about capitalism. I think it's a mixture of boredom and fashion trends and young people's desire to bitch about the system, regardless of what the system actually is and, more to the point, if they even know that it is. Side: hopeful nature
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