I wrote this week's cover leader for
@TheEconomist, on what we're calling Gen-Z socialism.
We argue:
— The me-first, ideology-light interventionism that the new crop of socialists are offering (think: capping grocery prices, freezing rent, wealth taxes) is novel and worth taking seriously.
— Free-market liberals are losing the argument. If anything, policies like rent control poll regularly higher than the parties that support them. Zero-sum attitudes to growth and distrust in markets are widespread.
— Part of the answer must be to stop apologising. Too much in recent decades, the conversation about capitalism has been framed in a series of caveats and retreats (e.g. behavioural economics, winners/losers of globalisation, inequality, climate). Those critiques usually have some truth, but too much weight on them obscures the remarkable success of market capitalism.
— But the centre has struggled, too, to concoct a creative and enticing policy offer. Or even to find remotely charismatic politicians to front it. Especially as AI advances supercharge many of these economic debates, that must change.
That, and much more, in the leader here:
economist.com/leaders/2026/0…