Gen Z is going to bring about a lot of change if they decide to actually participate in elections.
In one way, this is nothing new. Every generation leans to the left in its youth. This has been the case for much of modern history. The counterculture movement of the ’60s and ’70s is the event that first comes to mind when people think of left-leaning young adults, but polling for the last half century shows a consistent liberal lean in the under-35 crowd no matter the era that the poll was conducted.
Those differences, though, were often disagreements within the confines of our existing system. Gen Z and (to a certain extent) millennials disagree with their elders about the system itself. That is what makes this group different. We’re not discussing whether our taxes should be slightly more progressive or a candidate’s views—we’re discussing whether our system of governance or economics is even worth salvaging.
There’s a reason for that.
We’ll get into it in a bit, but the core issue here is actually one that people on all sides of the political spectrum and age group seem to agree on: something is just not quite right with the way our world is working.
Some older Americans, particularly those of a right-leaning persuasion, have the belief that the answer is to “make America great again” or, in other words, go back to a time when that sense of wrongness wasn’t present. The newer generation says the system is irreparably broken and needs to be scrapped.
They’re both looking at and identifying the same problem. It’s a difference in approach and attitude, but a seismic one. How big?
Large. I thought today I’d go over it and the why. Given I recently did a farewell of sorts to the boomers exiting the workforce, trying to both pay homage and respect to their point of view. It seems nicely symbiotic to look at the attitudes, outlook, and opinions of the young adults set to have a louder voice in our society.
Attitudes
Pew Research and Gallup both give the topic of economic systems a periodic look. Recently, the trends have been stark departures from what they were in the past.
Among adults 29 and younger — all voting members of Gen Z and the tail end of millennials — socialism earns a higher approval rating (by about four points) than capitalism does. This isn’t one of those situations where we’re talking about support moving from 8% to 12% or making a big deal out of nothing. Socialism is the preferred system of those under 30.
Fewer than one in four respondents said that they held a positive view of capitalism and a negative view of socialism simultaneously. 24% chose that option. Compare that with the 53% of voters over 65 who said the same thing, and you have a tremendous change in popular sentiment over a major issue.
In the 30–49 age group, a little bit of this can be seen as well. 40% of that group has a positive view of socialism, versus 53% who hold a positive view of capitalism. That’s a fairly tight margin for a group whom most assume would have “outgrown” their most liberal opinions by now.
As for what Gen Z does trust or respect? Science, mostly. The military, just barely. And nothing else.
All of this also undercuts the (annoyingly) popular argument that young people support socialism because they don’t understand the word. If anything, it seems to be the opposite — young people are opposing capitalism because they understand that word too well. Or, at a minimum, have personal experiences that have turned them off to all of the default systems.
I have no desire to be the ivory tower, coastal writer who projects ideas onto people. Luckily, I still work for a living, and the line-level staff that work for us are…you guessed it, young. So I just asked a few of them.
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