Millennials and Capitalism

Michelle Goldberg is not the first nor the only person to make clear why my generation is so quick to balk at capitalism, but I particularly liked this quote:

After the fall of Communism, capitalism came to seem like the modern world’s natural state, like the absence of ideology rather than an ideology itself. The Trump era is radicalizing because it makes the rotten morality behind our inequalities so manifest. It’s not just the occult magic of the market that’s enriching Ivanka Trump’s children while health insurance premiums soar and public school budgets wither. It’s the raw exercise of power by a tiny unaccountable minority that believes in its own superiority. You don’t have to want to abolish capitalism to understand why the prospect is tempting to a generation that’s being robbed.

When you put out a survey to my generation asking in blunt terms, “Capitalism: yay or nay”, you’re going to get a lot of Nays. But I’d argue that nearly all of those Nays are a middle finger to the greedy people currently running things in America. Very few of us are truly anti-capitalist. Very few of us are honestly interested in socialism. Every single article I’ve read arguing that Millennials are killing capitalism comes off as fear-mongering. They read blatantly disingenuous. What we want is simple to understand: We want the Baby Boomer generation to stop stealing from our generation.