The Kids Don’t Know (And Neither Do Their Parents)

The idea that many of my fellow citizens think favorably about socialism astounds me when I consider the sad tale of socialism’s history. I’m looking for reasons why that is. Here’s some background.

I think most of it is because of what we teach our children. They are not taught to think critically. It starts at the college level and continues with our teachers and parents who are product of our colleges and universities. The result is that we have generations who have been exposed to nothing but common anti-capitalism myths. 

Critical thinking courses teach students how to analyze problems using the tools of reason, logic, and research. It enables students to examine, research, and reveal the truth of a set of facts. Unfortunately, courses in critical thinking are rarely taught at the high school level. While students in the Santa Barbara Unified School district have no course in critical thinking, the district says they integrate thinking skills into an impressive course curricula. Kudos to them. At the college level, many have critical thinking courses, but most do not require students to take it and few do. 

Studies also reveal that our children are not well versed in civics, which is an explanation of the structure, function, and history of our government. Also, most people don’t seem to understand economics even though high schools and colleges are teaching economics courses. Of college grads, about 40% took at least one economics course.

Despite our educational system, almost 40% of Americans have positive views of some form of socialism. Democrats poll 57% positive to socialism and only 47% favorable to capitalism. For Republicans, 71% favor capitalism and only 16% to socialism. 

While many liberal Democrats favor capitalism, they also support a welfare state. They say the government needs to control capitalism’s “excesses” and prevent its perceived exploitation and inequality. 

The saying about being radical in your youth and more conservative when you’re old is true, regardless of party. 

With the sordid history of socialism’s failures, it appears that these folks either forgot what they learned in class or ditched school that day. 

So, why do 40% of Americans look favorably on socialism? It’s mostly groupthink and it starts at the college level.

Many of our college departments of economics, history, and philosophy have been captured by followers of Marx, Marcuse, Piketty, Keynes, and other left-wing advocates of socialism who deride the philosophies of the Enlightenment and the rise of individual freedoms and prosperity that followed. At many schools there is a common groupthink set of histories that blame capitalism for causing poverty and exploitation and even slavery despite data that give evidence of the exact opposite. For many teachers it may just be ignorance of what capitalism is and has achieved for mankind. For others it is a means of achieving political power to control our lives. Yet these misconceptions have been taught for decades and pervade the liberal class.

Either way, our educational system has failed them. I was one of them. 

I came out of college as a typical liberal because of what I was taught. My edition of the famous Samuelson economics textbook said the Soviet socialist-Marxian system was workable and a possible alternative to capitalism. History said otherwise. One of my professors was a famous Yale historian who convinced us that capitalism had failed us by causing the Depression and FDR’s New Deal takeover of the economy was the only way to save us. Only one professor said that said capitalism was good.

Fortunately during my law school days, I was exposed to the ideas, philosophies, and history behind capitalism that showed it was the greatest thing to happen to mankind. I was completely self-taught. I learned that capitalism has far fewer flaws than any other system of social economic organization ever devised. It lifted us out of 10,000 years of poverty while every government run or controlled economy throughout history, including socialism, failed. 

The solution? Require every high school and college student to take a course in critical thinking so they have the tools to think independently. The other solution is to break left-wing control of higher education and the groupthink it generates. Hire more teachers who have knowledge of the history and philosophies of capitalism and socialism so that students are exposed to both systems. 

When knowledgeable people compare capitalism to socialism, no one would willingly choose socialism.