There is certainly a new flavor of socialism emerging amongst the younger generation. The updated addition to the socialist dogma is tinged with what is called the Me-First perspective, the current rallying cry for a new batch of socialists attempting to upset the economic apple cart. This latest flavor is not too far from the traditional utopian idea that socialism could work somehow if all that is tweaked are price controls, the elimination of private ownership, slowing down market forces, and stifling entrepreneurial incentive and motivation. In other words, the new age socialists' prevailing cry for a socialist fix to the economy is to upset the apple cart for their own subsidization and effectively taxing everyone else. Put another way, it is about satisfying their wants using your means. Why do they use capitalist means of production to establish a socialist economy? Why doesn’t the new age socialist have a socialist means of production?

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The problem with the Gen Z new age socialist frame of thought is that they have no means of production of their own. Put plainly, there are no such things as socialist means of production or economic market tools; if so, what are they? To Gen Z, putting private property in someone else's hands and tweaking the economy to their benefit sounds workable, but the basic reality is very scary: they are under the impression that a socialist economy will solve their problems, and everyone else's for that matter, because in their minds all you have to do is control prices, increase minimums, put a cap on this, overtax the other, overregulate this and that, confiscate wealth, and so on. Yet here is the red pill: the previously listed points are capitalist means of production for a market economy; without a socialist means of production, none of the utopian ideas are workable.

Once all individual incentive and motivation tools are defunct, no one will want to or need to do anything for their fellow man and neighbor. Who will be motivated to do anything for anyone else? How will you eat dinner? You cannot destroy incentives for some and expect prosperity for all. They do not know that they eat dinner every night, not because of the benevolence of the butcher; rather, the butcher is incentivized every day to produce meat for us to consume via the market forces and the butcher’s means of production. Take that market means of production away and install overtaxation, kill the profit motive, and decree price floors and ceilings -- then we are in trouble. We will all need to resort to eating grass and carrots.

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The big problem with both the new and the old socialist doctrines is their attempt to upset the apple cart without having their own socialist means of production to replace the current system. That is when you get crickets. I would love to hear what they would put in place, let us say, if “capitalism” ended tomorrow. Would everyone own everything? How would that work? What would be the method of distribution? How would property renters know how much to reinvest in a property or what the going rates are? Perhaps I am missing something. The problem, as we already know, is that socialism has no productive means to replace this system other than to usurp the capitalist means of production and expect a third party to control it, as if the third party would not pursue its best interest.

The reality is stranger than fiction. What makes the third party less human than anyone else who wants economic ease and prosperity? Would the third-party economic controller want to eat filet mignon instead of chuck steak every night for dinner? Absolutely. And, yes, they want to pay chuck steak prices for filet mignon; who would not? Who does not prefer being subsidized rather than taxed to death? No one. Here is the kicker: in a capitalist system, prime ribs are produced, yes, at a higher price; in a socialist economy, filet mignon would not be considered a real option. But the third party knows very well, and the butcher and the grocer manager know as well, that there's just not enough of anything to go around, so the fair “capitalist” thing to do is signal to everyone via prices that is shared with millions of people as what they should buy or should not buy, and this is with everything from homes to cars to everything else. People own the means of production and use them for themselves and for everyone else, and consumers' demands are met by bidding up or down. So, to me, and probably you too, the new age socialists want to upset the apple cart, but without the tools and means of doing so, it is just plainly unworkable. There are no socialist tools for the means of production, at least that I am aware of, so they can demand reform all they want. Really, it is just hot air.

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Image: Public Domain