More young people vote for socialists.
They believe socialism is good for the poor, and "pro-working class."
But is it?
In my new video, Leyla Taghiyeva, my latest Stossel Fellow, interviews psychologist Rob Henderson, who points out that few poor people want socialism:
"When you actually see who supports socialism, these are people who are relatively well off," he says.
Henderson grew up in foster homes before getting degrees from Yale and Cambridge. He calls socialism a "luxury belief," "an idea that confers status while ultimately inflicting costs on people less fortunate... Take the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement. The majority of people who participated were college-educated. They disproportionately earned more than $100,000 a year."
"Maybe these people just want to help the poor," says Taghiyeva.
"If you want to help the poor, socialism isn't the way to go about it," replies Henderson. At anti-capitalism protests, he points out, "You don't see slogans like 'feed the poor,' 'help the needy.' It's more like 'soak the rich.'"
The socialists object to the wealth gap. They don't understand that free markets help poor people the most.
Margaret Thatcher won laughter and jeers saying it like this: "So long as the gap is smaller, they rather have the poor poorer."
"Thatcher was spot-on," says Henderson. It's as if the pro-socialism side believe "anyone above you, they acquired (their wealth) through illicit means. But then, once you reach that point, you did it honestly."
Sen. Bernie Sanders seems to believe that. He used to complain about "millionaires and billionaires!"
But now he is a millionaire. So he just complains about billionaires.
Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez grew up in a wealthy suburb and attended one of the most expensive colleges in America.
Seattle's new democratic socialist mayor, Katie Wilson, also grew up privileged. Thanks to wealthy parents, she attended Oxford debt-free.
New York City's new democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, also grew up in comfort. His parents own a five-bedroom mansion.
"He is the poster boy for luxury beliefs," Henderson tells Taghiyeva. "Almost like he was made in a laboratory. He has a wealthy filmmaker mother, an Ivy League professor father."
Successful socialist influencers, such as Hasan Piker, also grew up wealthy. Piker's dad was an executive at one of Turkey's biggest companies. Now Piker earns millions streaming on Twitch, denouncing the "inherently oppressive capitalist dogma" that makes him rich.
"He was seen wearing $1,300 glasses to his trip to Cuba," says Henderson. "Ostensibly, they think that everyone should be equal, but then when you look at how they behave in their lives, they're obsessed with getting into the right colleges, wearing the right clothes, showing off that they have money (and) the right beliefs."
Even Fidel Castro was rich.
"Castro famously wore two Rolexes," says Henderson. "The ostensible reason he gave was because time was of the essence... But why did it have to be two Rolexes?"
"(Socialism) never works, so why do people keep falling for it?" asks Taghiyeva.
"People have not been thoroughly educated in the catastrophes," replies Henderson. "In American high schools, you get 155 hours of Hitler, three minutes on Stalin, you get zero on Pol Pot (and) Mao. It's not that people have to be trained into liking socialism; they have to be educated out of liking it."
That's what Stossel TV tries to do -- teach people the dangers of socialism before more are misled by privileged voices who never bear the costs.
Taghiyeva grew up in Azerbaijan: "My country lived through socialism, but when I came to America for college, all I could see around my campus was communist posters. I don't get it! Socialism doesn't work!"
Socialism sounds good.
But it slowly wrecks lives.
Every Tuesday at JohnStossel.com, Stossel posts a new video about the battle between government and freedom. He is the author of "Government Gone Wild: Exposing the Truth Behind the Headlines."
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