In January 2020, a few weeks before the entire world experienced one of the greatest social and economic disruptions in memory in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic, a billionaire wrote an email.

“When 70% of Millennials say they are pro-socialist, we need to do better than simply dismiss them by saying that they are stupid or entitled or brainwashed; we should try and understand why. … When one has too much student debt or if housing is too unaffordable, then one will have negative capital for a long time and/or find it very hard to start accumulating capital in the form of real estate; and if one has no stake in the capitalist system, then one may well turn against it.”

The author of that email, tech investor and entrepreneur Peter Thiel, was speaking of the need to listen to the causes propelling a growing economic disillusionment among younger generations. At the time, millennials were the youngest generation that had fully aged into the workforce. Generation Z was just barely stepping into entry-level roles, and much of the generation had yet to graduate high school, let alone college. And that was all before they experienced the largest economic disturbance since at least the 2008 Great Recession that supercharged the very issues that Thiel identified as a barrier toward the accumulation of capital: student loan debt and unaffordable homes.

But while Thiel correctly observed that economic conditions were driving a generation of young people away from the principles of free enterprise and free markets that undergird America’s economic might, his email does not capture the full picture. It is one thing to say that heavy debt and the inability to buy and own a home are driving people away from capitalism, but it is another to recognize that interest in socialism as an alternative is as much due to the education that debt paid for as it is to the economic conditions that made it attractive.

Surveys from major pollsters have consistently shown that, while Thiel’s 70% assessment may be a bit of an exaggeration, younger generations are far more likely to support socialism or oppose free enterprise than older ones. A 2022 Pew Research Center study showed that 73% of respondents aged 65 or older held a positive view of capitalism, as did 62% of those aged 50-64. Among the first age group to include millennials, 30-49, that support dipped to 53%. Among respondents aged 18-30? Only 40% held a positive view of capitalism, while 44% felt drawn to socialism, the highest of any age group.

As Thiel noted, this generational shift against America’s traditional economy, in which people are free to invest and take risks as they choose, cannot simply be dismissed as the folly of youth. The reason that pro-socialist sentiments were able to take hold was due, in no small part, to failures of the system as it is now. But it was also the fruit of a political and cultural project that long predates the economic difficulties that young people face today.

On Oct. 18, hundreds of thousands of people turned out to protest against the Trump administration, using the self-righteous slogan “No Kings” as their rallying cry. This was the second such protest of the year, but with a much larger turnout than the June 14 event.

While the protest numbers were impressive, running into the millions, one could not say the crowd was dominated by........

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