Poll: Socialism appeals to the young but many don't know what it means
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Australian public opinion also exhibits an unmistakable age gradient, with younger Australians more likely to support Labor — and especially the Greens — than older Australians.
But what do people — and younger people in particular — mean when they say they favour or oppose socialism?
New polling by the United States Studies Centre and YouGov reveals considerable confusion and ignorance about socialism in both Australia and the United States.
We asked: "What is your understanding of the term socialism?"
Respondents could provide any answer they liked, in their own words.
Twenty-eight per cent of Australians fell at the first hurdle, with "don't know", "unsure" or "no clue" responses.
Another 13 per cent of Australians gave answers indicating they understand socialism as being sociable (eg "spending time with friends", "talking with people").
Just 59 per cent offered a response that was even close to any conventional definition of socialism (greater equality, public control of the means of production, etc).
Younger Australians are more likely to offer "don't know" or the "being sociable" classes of responses.
Less than one in three of our youngest Australian respondents could offer an even vaguely correct definition of socialism, a rate that rises to about two in three or better for respondents in their 50s or older.
The "s" word has been thrown around far more frequently in America than in Australia in recent years.
Seventy-four per cent of Americans respond with something close to a conventional definition of socialism.
Although younger Americans were less likely than older Americans to be able to define socialism, more than 60 per cent of even the youngest US respondents could do so, compared to less than 30 per cent of young Australians.
https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-11/socialism-appeals-to-the-young-but-many-dont-know-what-it-means/10988266
Younger Australians are more likely to offer "don't know" or the "being sociable" classes of responses.
Trump confirmed Socialist
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the number of people who actually know what capitalism means were fairly similar
Here Australians report more socialist preferences than Americans, with clear majorities for government control in six out nine cases, spanning roads and highways (70 per cent), health care and hospitals (67 per cent), public transport (62 per cent), schools and universities (59 per cent), electricity, gas and water (58 per cent) and aged care (53 per cent).
I'm glad people aren't willing to let our public systems slide, our universal healthcare, public education system and assets have to be defended. God forbid we end up with the mess that is National Rail in the UK, or the debt inducing healthcare system of America.
you say that like it would stop older voters from electing people that would privatize them.
From the article;
In six out of nine sectors we asked about, older Australians support public ownership and operation at rates of around 75 per cent or higher, typically outpacing younger Australians on this score by more than 20 percentage points.
Perhaps older Australians are pining for the "pre-privatised" Australian economy of their youth, while younger Australians have known nothing else.
Even so it's important younger Australians also understand how important our public infrastructure is, if the next generation doesn't understand why it is good thing then they won't understand the problem when governments (NSW Liberals mostly) start selling off ourt public assets to make a quick buck.
I think a better one would be to ask people to distinguish the concepts of capitalism and market economies.
Some people my age don't even know the difference between Conservative and Labour. I was literally asked in a pub 'which is the blue one?', and then when I told them that was the Tories, they said 'oh yeah, I support them'. Ummmm, do you?
Education regarding politics, and I expect this is an international issue, is severely lacklustre, and it doesn't help that the teachers that are giving them their three pieces of information are probably harbouring a huge bias.
People here in Australia often forget that the Liberals and Nationals are two different parties. While saying ‘LNP’ (Liberal National Party) is correct in Queensland where the two parties have actually merged together, in every other state the two parties are their own separate entities, with their own different policy platforms.
Also, many Australians spell the Australian Labor Party as ‘Labour’, and although labour is the correct dictionary term in Australia, the spelling for the party itself is ‘Labor’.
They almost always form coalitions to take government so I can understand how people would group them together.
It would be ironic if the right calling any sort of welfare Socialism made people go, "Wow, this socialism must be pretty good"
It's been a source of entertainment to be when discussing politics with coworkers to basically espouse socialist and communist theory without actually namedropping them. A lot of them end up agreeing with it if you withhold the names that cause such a kneejerk reaction
Honestly, people have fallen for the Fox News definition of socialism as "government doing stuff." People want the government to, you know, represent them and eliminate market inefficiencies (like healthcare insurance) and provide critical services and just generally function like a first-world government. Most liberals calling themselves socialists aren't anywhere close - they just want half-decent welfare programs.
I'm a pretty moderate socialist, and I like the idea of market socialism. In my view, democratizing the workplace is the backbone of eliminating the liberal slant towards authoritarianism. Cooperatively-owned businesses owned and operated by employees - no other types permitted. Criminalize wage theft and wage slavery - everyone who works for a business literally owns a share in that business. Want to cut wages? If the employees disagree, you can't. Everything is decided democratically. Eliminating the natural authoritarianism of the marketplace is the only solution to the flaws of capitalism. Market socialism is really the only way for socialism to be remotely palatable to an American audience. You keep money and salaries, you keep typical systems of employment, you just tear down the authoritarian boss-employee relationship and restrict the concentration of capital.
There are forms of socialism, like market socialism, that aren't nearly as radical as people think. Social democratic principles are a strong stepping stone to incremental socialism. Revolutionary socialism is a dead idea that has not and will not ever succeed, because it requires the Party to concentrate its economic and political power in a way that inevitably ends up more authoritarian than anything else. You can't force socialism down on the people - you need to grow it from the people.
The only thing to be happy about right now in the U.S. is the growing public recognition that socialism isn't a bad word. Even though people hear it and think "public option single payer healthcare, yay," it makes genuine socialist policies way less threatening, and helps people recognize the gross injustices that the people face in the pursuit of a few more dollars for the wealthiest people on the planet.
I do this all the time. My justification is that we've all been socialised and conditioned to respond to certain triggers, which is essentially a defence mechanism for the status quo. Capitalism teaches us we should love capitalism, so that we never abolish it. The natural conclusion of this is literally making "capitalism" a taboo word, so that we never discuss our system of governence, and instead just assume it as a natural force of nature. As in, we don't live in capitalism, we live in how the world is and always will be.
You can phrase things like "under the current system x, y and z" and your conservative grandparents will wholeheartedly agree with you, but if you say "under capitalism x, y and z" they will get very angry.
It would be a great start if in America people would stop mistaking social democracy for democratic socialism. I can't really tell if this is more or less the fault of the media or the politicians themselves, but many political ideas that are brought up by people like AOC or Sanders are often described as democratic socialist, when in reality they're social democratic.
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