Can we start by acknowledging some problems?

Rachel Bovard writes in the Daily Caller about the difficulties younger American adults are having.

In fact, we can’t even make enough money to get married, have kids, and buy a house — the very steps conservatives say will save us, and save civil society. Perhaps relatedly, suicide is now the second leading cause of death among ages 10-34. And we’re killing ourselves on opioids.

Given all of this, is it any wonder even a vague understanding of socialism sounds better?

Socialism is no cure, but if we’re going to win back millennials, it has to start acknowledging the problems. Saying “free market” really loudly isn’t going to suffice when much of what plagues millennials is linked to government manipulating the so-called free market — in many cases, with backing from the right.

…The hikes in tuition can be traced back to federal involvement in student loans. The tax code continues to be manipulated in favor of corporations, and less toward individuals and families. Health care is an uncompetitive cluster made worse by the government. Financiers on Wall Street benefit and manufacturing jobs disappear as our economic policies allow China to use the dollar against us. The government-backed housing giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, egged on by lawmakers who did nothing in response to their role in the market crash a decade ago, are again loading up financial markets with subprime mortgages.

…Capitalism has made us the richest and freest country in the world. But those on the right need to confront the flaws and excesses in the system — and posit means to address them — if they have a prayer of defending it with the rising generation.

Read more here.