Survey Shows Millennials and Gen Z Are More Capitalist Than Socialist – Bloomberg
The study demonstrates that younger Americans continue to believe in the holy trinity of competition, individual responsibility and earned success: Some 68% of younger millennials agree that competition is good and stimulates people to work hard and develop new ideas, while only 9% disagree.
While that may seem a banal stance, majorities also support spikier propositions. Roughly two-thirds agree that there s nothing wrong with trying to make as much money as you honestly can. Nearly half agree that people who overcome all competitors on the road to success are models for young people to admire. Some 73% of younger millennials agree with or are neutral about the idea that people should be allowed to keep what they produce, even if there are others with greater needs, only slightly less than the 78% of all Americans who said the same in a 2019 Cato Institute study. The figures are similar for older Gen Zs and older millennials.
Majorities are skeptical about the sort of government activism that is commonplace in Europe, rejecting the idea that government should be solely responsible for healthcare. Asked how responsibility for post-high school education should be divided between individuals, business and government, they say 51% of responsibility belongs to individuals, 11% to business and 38% to government. Asked the same question about retirement they believe that 43% of the responsibility lies with individuals, 18% with business and 38% with government. Not quite Ayn Rand but hardly socialism either.