I know, it's been a while since I posted anything. My problem has been that the news cycle seems to be 100% Trump, and that means I find it 100% uninteresting to write about. I will leave that subject alone, since (almost) literally every single other post on the internet seems to be about him. Why pile on with obvious rebuttals and pointless fist shaking?
Fortunately, today I read an article in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), HERE, about the apparent disconnect between the young's idolization of the silicon valley types (the Elon Musks of the world) and their vilification of capitalism. Now, the first thing I would like to point out here is that this is a terrible stereotype. The young, like the middle aged and old, hold a multiplicity of political and social opinions. So attempts to pigeonhole them into one particular view is, at best, misleading. Still, even if we accept the premise that the young or "millennials" all hold silicon valley types up as icons while hating capitalism, why should this come as such a surprise to the Wall Street types who the WSJ typically appeals to? Can they really think of NO reasons why the young would mistrust free enterprise and big business? It all seems very disingenuous.
Firstly, if we are going to stereotype millennials, we can at least do so a bit more accurately by saying they are far more tech savvy than the older generations, given they grew up on the internet and with smart phones. But even here, I admit, we are painting with a broad brush. Secondly, that they have lived through multiple economic down turns with both the tech bubble bursting and the great recession occurring during their lifetimes. Lastly, their generation has been saddled with more debt than any previous generation, due largely to the cost of college spiking during their lifetime. So, even without bothering to put up any more examples (of which their are plenty) of the apparent failure of capitalism to provide them with an improving quality of life, it should be obvious why the young distrust capitalism. They have seen the worst aspects of it without reaping any of the benefits, or that's at least how it appears to them. Obviously, modern America and our high standard of living exists, at least partially, because of capitalism, so we all (arguably) reap the benefits. But the point is, the defining moments of their lifetimes have not been ones in which capitalism has had much to crow about.
Now compare this with silicon valley. We have young dynamic companies creating billions of dollars seemingly overnight using the very technologies that this generation grew up with. More over, these companies are anxious to hire millennials and make use of their tech knowledge (one of the few areas of the economy that is all that interested in this generation). More over, they have seen the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation use money earned in tech to do real good in the world. Similarly, they have seen Elon Musk create new companies and vast fortunes on technologies designed to ween the world from our reliance on fossil fuels that are (at the very least) partially responsible for our current global warming trend. Is it really a surprise that the young think highly of these actions?
The point of the article in the WSJ is really that we should be calling attention to all the good that capitalism has wrought (and the wrong government has caused through excessive regulation) and proselytizing this to the masses. And I do not disagree with this point. What I do disagree with is the facile notion that all millenials think a certain way, and that the benefits of capitalism should be obvious to the younger generations given our recent history. If we are to make a convincing argument for free enterprise and capitalism free of government interference, we should start by being honest with ourselves that the case for this is not nearly as obvious as we would like it to be. And from this point of mutual understanding, we can then build a case (using tech companies, if that seems the most likely example to keep our audiences' attention) that capitalism and free enterprise are things worth preserving.
