by Jon Street
Young Americans, including college students, are increasingly gravitating toward socialism, but one Wall Street executive is pushing back, warning of the system’s potentially irreversible effects.
A recently published analysis by the top finance school in the United States, University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Finance, has found that Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” plan would shrink the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 24 percent by 2060. Meanwhile, the majority of Democrat and Democrat-leaning college students nationwide overwhelmingly favor Sanders as the Democrat presidential nominee over any of the other candidates.
According to the Chegg Election Tracker from the College Pulse, Sanders leads his Democrat rivals with 43 percent support among Democrat and Democrat-leaning college students. Sen. Elizabeth Warren stands at a distant 22 percent with businessman Andrew Yang at 12 percent.
The latest polling data comes just weeks after another poll found that one-third of Millenials hold a favorable view of socialism while a majority said they are likely to vote for a socialist.
JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon acknowledged in a recent piece for TIME the increased favorability of socialism, especially among younger Americans, but warned of the potentially devastating effects such a system could have.
“It’s not hard to see why some are losing faith in our system, particularly the younger generation,” Dimon wrote. “Health care costs are excessively high and unpredictable, often causing financial distress. Students are too often graduating without the skills to get good jobs and saddled with too much debt. Infrastructure is rapidly deteriorating. And maybe most importantly, wages, particularly at the low end, have not been growing enough.”
“That might explain why some Americans and politicians are turning to the ‘hot’ new trend of socialism as a cure-all for society’s ills. Of course socialism isn’t new, and everywhere it has taken root in the past it has failed…Socialism inevitably produces stagnation, corruption and the specter of authoritarian bureaucrats maintaining power by interfering with the economy and individual lives. I believe this would be a disaster for our country. True freedom is inexorably linked with the free enterprise that capitalism guarantees, and we mustn’t forget that,” Dimon added.
In a recent interview with CNBC, Dimon elaborated on his piece for TIME.
“I don’t think people understand what socialism is. Socialism is when the government controls companies. There is no example where the government controls companies where they do well and they don’t start to use it as votes, satisfying people. They don’t even want competition because with two government companies, you know, why have competition. They do it for jobs and votes. They have bad allocation of capital. Most state-owned enterprises don’t do a particularly good job. You take a look around the world and they become corrupt over time,” Dimon said.
Watch the full 20min interview:
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John Street is the Managing Editor of Campus Reform . Follow Jon on Twitter at @JonStreet.
