Bernie Sanders will not win the Democratic nomination, but he has certainly attracted lots of young people to his campaign. A significant percentage of those in the millennial generation are following him and support his socialist platform.

Robert Knight in a column that talks about his siren song of socialism is puzzled. The millennial generation is highly educated. He thinks they would be wary of anyone sporting a socialist brand. Bernie Sanders embraces it and attracts lots of young people.

When Karl Marx first proposed the concepts of socialism and communism, he enjoyed an intellectual advantage. He could talk about the problems with capitalism as the 19th century world was going through the difficult process of industrialization. He could contrast the reality of capitalism with the utopian ideals of socialism.

Apparently the same debate advantage still exists. Robert Knight quotes from the late columnist Joseph Sobran. He said: “It makes no difference that socialism’s actual record is terribly bloody; socialism is forever judged by its promises and supposed possibilities, while capitalism is judged by it worst cases.”

Young people are also attracted to the message by Bernie Sanders because he talks about student debt. The millennial generation has lots of student loan debt and love the candidate’s call for free public university education and student loan forgiveness. Of course, they probably don’t pause long enough to wonder how we would pay for this massive entitlement. Nor do they stop and wonder why someone who didn’t go to college and took a blue-collar job should pay for their university education.

The millennial generation may become the most educated generation in history. A high percentage of them will have a college degree. But if they paid a bit more attention to economics or history they would know that socialism is not the solution to our nation’s problems.