According to the spring 2016 Harvard Public Opinion Project poll, capitalism does not appear to be a dominant economic system in the minds of Millennials. Questions over self-identification, attitudes toward Wall Street, and trade policy point toward a generation that lacks the firm belief in capitalism that has dominated in the United States these past few decades.
Questions of self-identification revealed that a majority of Millennials do not support capitalism—of those surveyed, only 42 percent answered that they supported capitalism while 51 percent said that they did not. However, capitalism still received a warmer reception than socialism, which only 33 percent said they agreed with while 59 percent said they did not. Nevertheless, most Millennials, having grown up in a decade of financial insecurity as well as populist rhetoric, seem to no longer support a pure form of capitalism. In fact, it is likely that most respondents instead feel like they lie somewhere “in the middle” of the two, splitting their loyalties between the perceived merits and ills of both.
Even though capitalism may be looked upon as marginally better than socialism, Wall Street received strikingly little support. A whopping 86 percent of those surveyed replied that they sometimes or never trusted Wall Street to do the right thing while only 11 percent would trust it all or most of the time. Such distrust extends across party lines as well, as only 3 percent of Democrats and 1 percent of Republicans expressed full faith in Wall Street. However, when asked about regulation of Wall Street, the familiar partisan battle lines reemerged: 42 percent of self-identified Democrats and 15 percent of self-identified Republicans said they wanted a “large” role for the federal government in regulating Wall Street. Despite the policy differences between ideologies, it is clear that the generation that grew up in the Great Recession still remains deeply distrustful of the financial system and skeptical as to whether the interests of Wall Street bankers align with their own.
When it comes to economic policy, cracks also begin to show in party lines and capitalistic belief. In classical capitalist systems backed by Ricardo, Smith, and modern economists, free trade benefits all parties involved. However, only a net 27 percent of those surveyed agreed that the goal of US trade policy should be to eliminate barriers to trade and employment. Twenty-four percent disagreed; 45 percent neither agreed nor disagreed. Interestingly, 31 percent of Democrats agreed with elimination of trade barriers while only 24 percent of their Republican counterparts answered likewise, a curious flip on an issue which has historically seen such numbers go the other way. Such flagging support for free trade policy as well as low support from members of a traditionally more fiscally conservative party demonstrate a more isolationist and insular trend among Millennials that has been exasperated by the populist rhetoric of the current election. With populist candidates Sanders and Trump attacking trade policies from both sides of the aisle, it should be of no surprise that support for open trade policy is now flagging.
Although Millennials may be losing their support for capitalism, it still has retained slight favorability despite recent political rhetoric and economic downturns. However, with faith in Wall Street abysmally low, there exists significant political capital that may eventually swell up even after the end of this election.