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College students are becoming far more optimistic about socialism, even preferring it to capitalism, according to a newly released poll from Axios and The Generation Lab.
The results came out shortly before Tuesday’s election of self-described democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City, a clear indication of the growing appeal of the left-wing ideology among voters, including college-aged ones.
This poll was conducted during the last week of October, surveying 1,574 college students at two- or four-year colleges nationwide, including 728 Democrats, 217 Republicans and 629 independents, according to the news outlet.
The results found that 67 percent of students surveyed held a positive or neutral opinion of the word “socialism,” compared with only 40 percent of respondents holding the same opinion regarding “capitalism.”
“Negative views of capitalism outweigh negative views of socialism by an even greater difference: 53% v. 23%. One in three has a neutral view of socialism. One in four has a neutral view of capitalism,” Axios reported.
Weighing in on the results, Axios’ Mike Allen noted: “The survey reveals Gen Z’s growing disillusionment with capitalism — fueled by high inflation, surging health care and housing costs, and the rising influence of billionaires in politics, tech and media.”
When asked what issues will most motivate their votes in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, the economy and inflation were cited as the most important, chosen 41 percent of the time, which indicates students may believe socialism is a superior option for generating a healthy and growing economy.
Healthcare and education were found to be the next two most important issues, picked 36 and 33 percent of the time, respectively.
Libertarian billionaire tech mogul Peter Thiel, in an interview Thursday with the Free Press, said the draw of socialism for young people is due in part to the fact that they are graduating with four-year degrees saddled with mountains of debt and little marketable skills, coupled with the fact that they have been priced out of the American dream of owning a home.
This tracks with the fact that exit polling “after Mamdani’s victory shows that his voters were likely motivated by two things: high rent and student debt,” the Free Press noted.
Stated Thiel: “I don’t know if I would say that young people are pro-socialist. I would say they are less pro-capitalist than they used to be. If capitalism is seen as an unfair racket of one sort or another, you’ll be much less pro capitalism.”
As for the Axios poll, when Democratic respondents were asked who they would vote for in the 2028 presidential election, no candidate arose as a decisive contender, however 19 percent showed support for democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, a proponent of “healthcare for all” and the Green New Deal, and 17 percent supported former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Daniel Di Martino, an escapee from socialist Venezuelan, freedom activist, economist, and founder of the Dissident Project, a nonprofit speakers bureau connecting immigrants who fled tyrannical regimes with American students, expressed disapproval of the shift students are making toward socialism.
“Years of lack of education on the matter and even professors lying to students and growing government handouts and promises have desensitized and created support among the youth for socialism as a buzzword,” he told The College Fix.
The results of the Axios and The Generation Lab poll mirror that of other recent surveys, including one done by Gallup in September that showed the overall approval among Americans for capitalism shrunk to just 54 percent, while support for socialism rose to 39 percent.
Di Martino said he believes reforms inside the education system are needed to restructure what students are being taught so as to help avoid the deadly mistakes of the past.
“We need high schools and colleges to teach again about the evils of socialism, the totalitarian ideology that has killed the most people of any in human history, so that students don’t grow up to support it,” he said.
