CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Now you’ve done it. You’ve gone and upset the establishment Economist.

The British news magazine recently published (June 4) an op-ed expressing their concerns about “Gen Z socialism”: “A fresh crop of socialists want to remake the economy with price controls, hefty wealth taxes, and a spree of nationalisations.” These allegedly nefarious notions on the part of Generation Z (1997–2012) are clearly considered ideological violations that reek of revolution.

However, they are revolutionary only if they benefit the population; the assumption is that the same set of policies that bolster the stupendously wealthy, those whom the Economist apparently believes are the better, more responsible set of citizens, are perfectly natural.

Let’s take, for example, the objection to wealth taxes. Terrible, right? Nowhere in their op-ed do they object to taxing the resources of poor Americans; but that is precisely what the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act does. In effect, it is a wealth transfer from the bottom to the top.

According to the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and based on Congressional Budget Office data, tax cuts for those with annual incomes of $500,000 or more will receive 1.4 trillion in total tax savings. That money comes at the expense of 187 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and slashing 1.1 trillion from Medicaid over ten years.

Although all income groups receive a much-touted tax break, that “savings” outweighs losses in “health coverage, food assistance, and other programs.” The erosion of entitlements for the poorest Americans—those at the bottom 10 percent of the income distribution—translates to an annual decrease of $1,200 per household while the top ten percent will gain $13,600 each year.

As far as “nationalisations” are concerned, the US government has bailed out large financial institutions, airlines, and auto manufacturers many times with a stream of hundreds of billions in taxpayer money. In effect,........

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