Ronald Reagan warned us that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. Right now that warning is not history. It is the news.
Socialism is not just a dorm-room debate anymore. It is on ballots, it is winning elections, and it is shaping how a whole generation of young Americans thinks about work, ownership, and success. That is the point Rose makes on a new episode of Rose Unplugged, featured at The Gateway Pundit, and every Patriot should hear it.
Her main argument is simple: capitalism is not mainly an economic theory. It is a moral one. It rests on the idea that you own yourself, your labor, and what your labor produces. No king, bureaucrat, or committee gets to decide what you are allowed to build, sell, or earn. Take that away and you have not just changed the economy. You have taken away a person's freedom.
Her guest, Dr. Charles N. Steele of Hillsdale College, director of the Center for Commerce and Freedom and author of the upcoming book Understanding Capitalism, explains why. Prices carry information that no government planner can match. Competition holds businesses accountable in a way a government monopoly never will.
He also talks about Thomas Sowell, who started out as a Marxist and became one of the great champions of free markets. And he points to the Reagan years, when 13% inflation gave way to millions of new jobs. Hillsdale's view is that you cannot honestly teach commerce without teaching freedom alongside it.
The conversation goes back further than any economist. It starts with Jesus' Parable of the Talents, a lesson in stewardship, initiative, and the moral weight of what we do with what God has given us. It ends with Moses' warning in Deuteronomy 8 never to forget who gives us the power to make wealth in the first place.
Here is my take. Young people are not choosing socialism because they studied the results. Nobody who studied the results would. They are choosing it because nobody taught them what freedom is or where it comes from. That is on us. If we want to keep this country, we have to teach our kids and grandkids the difference between earning something and being handed it, and why the first one makes you free.
Every generation gets one shot at holding on to the freedom it inherited. This one is ours.
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