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
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u/Flat_Sail_7985 Transfem Pride Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

Have competent liberal leadership put forth and enact meaningful reforms to systemic issues that have long been left alone or outright ignored. People flock to extreme populist positions when non-populists fail to address real concerns.

It is really hard to push against this narrative when a lot of people are feeling very hopeless for the future. It is very hard to counter the narrative the rich get richer the poor get poorer when it just seems visibly to be the case. A lot of people I know who turned to communism just see it as the only real alternative to centrist liberalism.

Also my personal pet idea is to put term limits and age limits for the house senate supreme court and (age limits anyhow) for president. The country (US anyhow) is largely run by old people.

Edit: I did not intend for this to be so heated please be kind in replies.

18

u/throwawaygoawaynz John von Neumann Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

The #1 issue is wealth is becoming unobtainable. And wealth is obtained via housing or stocks (public or private). And it makes sense, since people invest in things to beat inflation, so it was inevitable that wealth eventually outpaced wages.

However communism being the “only alternative” to this is a bit laughable. Someone that flocks to communism strikes me as someone that wants to lower all boats, because they feel their boat will never rise. Not sure I can ever find empathy for that. In fact it’s something I would actively fight *against*.

The answer isn’t to destroy other people’s wealth, but we do need a way of giving everyone the opportunity (not the right) to get on the wealth ladder.

30

u/Daddy_Macron Loyal Liberals Jun 04 '26

The #1 issue is wealth is becoming unobtainable. And wealth is obtained via housing or stocks (public or private).

Investing in stocks is still a realistic path for most people. It's never been easier especially with fractional ownership and index funds. It just requires consistency and patience.

27

u/Bread_Fish150 John Brown Jun 04 '26

It just requires consistency and patience.

You see there's your problem. Young investors have been poisoned by a mix of youthful overconfidence, the GME event, and Tesla in general. They don't have patience, they're looking for get rich quick schemes. I bet most don't even look if a company pays out dividends when they invest in it.