My wife is the director of marketing at her company and the company demands a college education before she can hire a new employee. She hires and fires on a very regular basis and the one rule that saves her bacon is she can hire from within the company individuals that have a proven work ethic but do not have the required college degree. According to my wife she is easily able to train those who are not adorned with a Pig Skin. Her very best marketing specialists have a HS education and maybe a few college credits but need the job and are willing to work and learn the marketing techniques.

One critical factor in getting people to accept socialism is the idea that wealth is a zero sum game and that in order for everyone to benefit there must be some way to make it uniform for everyone; enter socialism and the exclusive use of violence by the state to remove property from those who have created it and spread it around.
If all the money of every billionaire in the world was distributed among the people of the world the people would be amazed at how little it was, they would immediately squander it on a meaningless party and complain that there wasn't more.
Wealth is created every time someone puts forth effort to produce or create something. When more efficient means of production are created the cost goes down and the availability goes up, everyone becomes wealthier even if not as much as some who created more.
When violence is employed to create a state of equality the least moral of the people are the ones to rise to the position of power and they employ murder and plunder to gain more instead of creativity and effort. The result is the same no matter who is in power. There are no munificent dictators or kings waiting to guide their people to the promised land. A great fear is that an 'outside' force will take over the promised land and murder the subjects so they submit themselves to a leader who will murder more of them and tell them they are happier and better because of it. There always seem to be a majority of people who accept this lie.

Socialism seems to rear its ugly head when things are bad (like in the depression), and when things are good (like now where money is flowing and can be taken and used to give freebies)

I always ask socialist fans three questions:
1) What is socialism?
- none I've asked have a clue about what it is
2) Can you identify a successful socialist country?
- they usually misidentify Sweden, which is less socialist than we are
3) Why are you attracted to socialism?
- the usual response is "because it's more fair."

While I would like to ask more questions in hope of getting more of their brain cells active, the conversation usually ends there, often with derogatory comments aimed at me as a capitalist pig. We live in disturbing times.

If we think about it, we can find one particular student who went to that particular school: Bluto. "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?"

Why is socialism so pervasive? Ayn Rand identified all the reasons. The university culture, the media, the looters, etc.

As long as other universities continue their tripe, I will continue the alternative at Florida Tech.

Mine too!

"...mean spirited clown show." is a false claim.

While its unclear who came up with the quote, this one does apply
"If You Don’t Stand for Something, You’ll Fall for Anything"

The nature of the attacks on this country and its foundational beliefs is such that exceptionalism (not elitism) must be erased to the extend it is unknown, shunned, or ridiculed. In nay way America has been exceptional we can see the corrosive elements of those abroad brought into our lives through our school. Family, prosperity, individual accomplishments, simple pride in our achievements as individuals and as a nation are all, and have been for many years, relentlessly attacked. The recent generation(s) have no pride in the our nation, our people, and no direction they can plot for themselves. They feel guilty or boastful for simply taking pride in their own achievements. Instead of being the optime of the American promise, they schlep it off to good fortune based on the happenstance of their birth.

Its disgusting. I know this because one of mine, the one who achieved the most and should be beaming with pride..isn't. It breaks my heart.

The four reasons it suggests seem plausible, esp #1 and #4. I have two other suggestions:
5. Unskilled wages have stagnated while return on equity has gone up. There are some signs the trend will continue. Socialism is not a good response to this, but it's easy to see how people with a simplistic understanding could hear the "rich are getting richer" and respond that we need to take their wealth.
6. Branding - People who don't know much about socialism (see reason #1 in the article) hear the incorrect claim that socialism is the opposite of President Trump's mean-spirited clown show. This makes socialism sound kind, optimistic, and intelligent.

👍

These protesting 'youngsters' are soooo boring. They should all go home and play with their toys....

Morality and ethics is a good place to start.

I suggested to our re-elected republican First Selectman that we make all our schools in town, "Alternative" Schools and use the programs offered by Hillsdale College. It would be cheaper, could be Unionless and we'd be the only town in CT with well educated kids

Like all politicians, he said he'd look into that, "sounds like a great idea", he said.
He is not getting away that easily, I'll be checking up on the progress. .

Just like they turned America into crap, one kid at a time, so should we, turn it back to gold, one kid at a time.

PS...memes up and a post on geocentrism.

Avoidance.

Save for some job skills, the parents of those grown kids are probably as ignorant as they are.

Watters' interviews of these snowflakes are horrifying.

I watched quite a few of them and the level of knowledge let alone understanding of history both of the US and the world triggers a deep fear of what these people will do with their lives in a total oblivion.

No wonder they absorb any nonsense their teachers are telling them. Where are their parents? When I was in school, I learned most of the ideology governing my life later from my parents, no matter what some of my teachers were trying to impress me with. We had long discussions in the evenings and I never digressed from their sage directions.

What do these kids learn from their parents?

Based on the ignorant answers Fox News Watters received for asking college kids Veterans Day weekend questions last night, me dino believes Watters could redraw the shape of the world's countries and even continents (eliminating Hawaii, Australia and Antartica) and successfully pass it off as "How The World Looked In 1849 When We Beat China During World War 2."
Bet he could convince some of those bobbleheads that World War 2 was also known as The Boxer School Rebellion due to our Japanese allies beating up Chinese kung fu schools with karate schools who got sneaky with samurai swords.
I can just hear it now. "Oh, wow, man. I didn't know that."

Anyone who has watched normally rational people at a free bar knows why socialism is popular.

Moral relativism and multiculturalism. Once someone believes everything is okay depending on circumstances they tend to make excuses, blaming others, for their inability. Then they learn that everyone everywhere is just the same, going through the same things and, minus the drive to overcome, settle on their knees, hands outstetched and cupped waiting for someone to provide sustinence and a direction for success.

These snowflakes don’t think. They couldn’t tell you where Sweden is on a globe 🌏. Lucky if they know the globe represents the planet they live on.

There is only one reason: stupidity based on ignorance.

Factor #4: Coddled Kids
The young have always been more inclined to embrace pipe dreams — a lack of familiarity with the complicated way in which the world actually works, coupled with the college fix described above, will do that to most anyone — but there is a reason the mindset of today’s young’uns is particularly susceptible to the red menace.
When we are raised in the belief we are wonderful just as we are, we never learn the critical life skills of self-soothing, working through anxiety, facing obstacles and overcoming adversity. The predictable result, as Haidt and Lukianoff observe, is a demand to be safeguarded — safe spaces, free speech crackdowns and so on.

Factor #3: Universities’ Ideological Monoculture
The supporters of socialism are not simply the young, but rather, disproportionately those among the young who are college-educated. And the more college they have, the hotter for socialism they get. According to a 2015 poll , support for socialism grows from 48% among those with a high school diploma or less to 62% among college graduates to 78% among those with post-graduate degrees.