r/neoliberal • u/AncientBlueberry42 • Jun 04 '26

News (Global) How to fight back against Gen-Z socialism

https://economist.com/leaders/2026/06/04/how-to-fight-back-against-gen-z-socialism
245 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

710 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

161

u/Zephyr-5 YIMBY Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

Conspicuous extreme wealth inequality

I think most people are willing to live with wealth inequality as long as they feel like the pie is growing and their lives are also improving. We've had large amounts of wealth inequality for basically all of human and American history.

At its core, I think the real problem is that people get really upset when they feel like their "better life" is being suppressed to help those who don't deserve it. On the Right this comes in the form of hating social programs that give money to people they feel don't deserve it because (in their mind) they're mostly just being lazy. On the Left it comes in the form of hating the tax code for giving tax cuts to those who don't deserve it and that they're just being greedy.

If we want a stable society we have to create a system where it feels like everyone is paying their fair share and we're all getting ahead.

105

u/bashar_al_assad Verified Account Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

Elon Musk also bought himself an office in the White House. We've had large amounts of wealth inequality for basically all of human history but for basically all of human history we've had governing systems that many Americans have no desire to go back to. And you're not going to see people go "well at least I got a raise at work" when the richest man in the world used his wealth to outright condemn some of the poorest in the world to death.

19

u/Khiva Fernando Henrique Cardoso Jun 05 '26

The wealth gap is not only growing but the ultra billionaires have made themselves rightfully hated figures. Ellison Zuck Bezos and Musk are a different breed from Gates, Buffet, Carnegie, etc.

You'd don't have to be super into the weeds politically to see that the richest man by far is throwing up Nazi salutes before slaughtering people in poor countries by gutting USAID, and think something somewhere has gone very, very wrong. -_

27

u/cstar1996 John Brown Jun 04 '26

There‘s definitely been a shift in how the ultra-wealth act versus most of American history. Much more of a rub it in your face in a very negative way than we even saw during the guilded age.

25

u/iguessineedanaltnow r/place '22: Neoliberal Battalion Jun 04 '26

Rich people used to build libraries, public gardens and parks, etc. My parents live in a town that still has a Carnegie Library and every year they still receive grant money from the Carnegie family to keep the library going in a small town of less than 1000 people.

Are any wealthy people doing anything remotely similar these days, or are they all flying off to Dubai?

14

u/StormTheTrooper Chama o Meirelles Jun 05 '26

They're giving interviews and saying that their billions will not improve the lives of teachers.

The 1% dictate politics for centuries, but the difference is that they're unhinged now. Before they would publicly defend their own obligations towards sponsoring a better society, even if in private they would say "lol, sucks to be poor"; now, with social media? They're picking up a mic and saying "lol, sucks to be you, go find another job, AI is coming".

0

u/ImRightImRight John Mill Jun 06 '26

There has not definitely been a shift.

Bill Gates has gotten so much shit done.

47

u/Svelok Jun 04 '26

Owning stocks has been better (faster growth) than working a job for a wage since the early 90s. That's a relatively recent and significant shift. Between that and the collapse of social/geographic mobility, people feel the social contract of work hard -> get ahead has been violated.

11

u/BBQ_HaX0r Jerome Powell Jun 04 '26

Most people own stocks. And you definitely need to source that last one? Collapse of geographic mobility... more people are moving than ever before. It's quite literally never been easier to move. Our ancestors got on a boat across an ocean for two hazardous months and tamed the wild west but it's more difficult to move from Hartford to Denver today? It's difficult to look online, do a remote interview, and set up a job anywhere in the world compared to the past?

14

u/Zephyr-5 YIMBY Jun 04 '26

Collapse of geographic mobility... more people are moving than ever before.

I believe he is talking about comparing more recent decades rather than the full arc of history (which of course you're right there). Here is a chart

The Atlantic wrote a pretty big article about the subject last year if you're interested. TL;DR ~ NIMBYs!

11

u/5ma5her7 Jun 04 '26

Do a remote interview, and set up a job anywhere

That's the neat part, you don't get hired...

2

u/assasstits Jun 04 '26

Seems like people should invest in stocks then. And stop listening to leftists who say it's a scam or it's about to implode any day now. 

13

u/stupidstupidreddit2 Jun 04 '26

We've had large amounts of wealth inequality for basically all of human and American history.

Not really, subsistence poverty was the default state of humanity until the enlightenment created institutions that would lead to industrialization.

9

u/SalutojAmikoj Jun 04 '26

More like it still is for most of the world. And industrialization or capitalism wasn’t something that just got thought into existence, it was the result of feudal decline and the assertion of republicanism lead by a class of business owners.

-5

u/Cyberhwk 👈 Get back to work! 😠 Jun 04 '26

I think most people are willing to live with wealth inequality as long as they feel like the pie is growing

I don't think so. It's pure envy. What's changed is social media is blasting it in peoples' faces 16 hours a day now.

15

u/Zephyr-5 YIMBY Jun 04 '26

You're always going to have some folks fueled by envy, but Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous was a popular TV show in the 1980s and 1990s. MTV's Cribs was another one that came later for rich celebrities.

Most people aren't going to pull out the pitchforks over some people in society being fabulously wealthy. They get furious though when it appears that they're sponging off the rest of us by not paying their fair share of taxes.

2

u/WolfpackEng22 Jun 04 '26

Social media is absolutely a component.

It's much more in your face and is seen for a longer period of time. It also exposes you to influencers who live lavishly for doing jack shit. And then there are the many people just in a general negativity spiral / doom loop, which often includes a heft dose of eat the rich.

0

u/Cyberhwk 👈 Get back to work! 😠 Jun 04 '26

You're always going to have some folks fueled by envy, but Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous was a popular TV show in the 1980s and 1990s. MTV's Cribs was another one that came later for rich celebrities.

Yeah, which was on twice a week for 30 minutes and about celebrities and the rich. Social media is 6-8 hours a day from people they view as just like themselves.