Let me start with a definition. The Millennial generation is sometimes called generation Y is defined as being born from 1981 to 1996. That would make their ages 24 to 39. The next generation, widely referred to as the Z generation, would be anyone born after 1996. We are only interested in the voting-age population. For the Z generation, it would include the years 1997 to 1999. Why are we interested in these two generations? It is because surveys show they are the most unhappy with the form of government we currently have. Virtually none of the Baby Boomers are unhappy with the form of government. They may be very unhappy with some of the people in government, but they wouldn’t change the form of our government.
Millennial’s feelings about the need to change our form of government has steadily risen since the turn-of-the-century. This trend is true not only for the United States but also for European countries. For example, in Great Britain’s Millennials, some polls show that more than 60% feel they should change their form of government. I wonder if it isn’t because of all the controversy over leaving the European Union. Here in the United States, the latest poll I could find told me that just over half, 53% of Millennials feel we should change our form of government. I think that is true for the United States because we are highly polarized. I even hear terms like “hate” people in the other party. Those in Generation Z who are of voting age think the whole system of government we have is just one “giant mess.” Generation Z feels we should change our form of government by a whopping 87%. That seemed high to me when I read it, but young people are always willing to try something new particularly if it’s different from the past.
The question is what form of government do these unhappy people want to see? There are a few, less than 10%, who would like to see a strong leader who would tell people what to do. That’s the definition of a dictator. Most of the Millennials and Generation Z would like to see socialism. They point out that we have a huge income gap we have. A CEO can make a multimillion-dollar salary while the people working for them have to work two jobs to make ends meet. They point to healthcare and the fact that it’s increasingly expensive and all they see the government doing is nothing or sometimes making it even worse. They point out the example of Scandinavian countries where they have socialized medicine with an included insurance program. There are other problems they see and the list is something everyone would recognize. The problem is they see no help coming from the politicians of either party. The only way they seek to solve these problems is to change the form of government to socialism. It should be a warning to all of the politicians in Washington that a change could come about whether or not they want it to change. Currently, politicians are relatively safe because of the huge size of the Baby Boomer generation. The Baby Boomers equate socialism with communism because that was true for most of their lives. The politicians better wake up because if they don’t, a popular idea among young people will overwhelm them.
