Is Economic Anxiety Driving People to Socialism?

Plus: War crime allegations against Hegseth, Congress threatens the legal hemp industry, and reflections on the legacy of Tom Stoppard

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Is Economic Anxiety Driving People to Socialism?

This week, editors Peter Suderman, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Matt Welch dig into the disconnect between strong Black Friday spending and a public mood shaped by rising costs, economic anxiety, and slipping approval numbers for President Donald Trump. They explore why so many Americans feel poorer despite higher overall wealth, how regulation and subsidies have distorted key markets like housing and health care, and what to make of polling that shows young voters warming to democratic socialism.

The conversation then turns to the war crime allegations against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who allegedly gave the orders to "kill everybody" on Venezuelan boat strikes that resulted in the killing of survivors, and what limits actually exist on the use of military force. The editors also examine a new federal ban on hemp products and the damage it could inflict on a growing legal industry. A listener asks whether recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions signal a troubling erosion of constitutional protections, and the group takes time to reflect on the legacy of playwright Tom Stoppard and his long association with free speech and small government ideals.

Join us this Thursday, December 4, at 2:30 p.m. ET for a special live edition of The Reason Roundtable as part of our annual webathon. Send your questions for the Reason editors to [e-mail] with "Webathon" in the subject line.

Watch at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaOOdtJqzmY

 

0:00—Economic anxiety and standards of living

18:45—War crime allegations against Hegseth

32:09—Federal hemp ban threatens industry

37:35—Listener question on ICE constitutionality

46:45—The legacy of Tom Stoppard

56:31—Weekly cultural recommendations

 

Mentioned in This Podcast

"Toplines - Heartland Nov 2025 Democratic Socialism," by Rasmussen Reports

"New Low in U.S. 'Very Satisfied' With Personal Life," by Gallup

"'Kill Everybody,'" by Christian Britschgi

"Trump's Venezuela Escalation Could Destroy MAGA, Warns Rand Paul," by Jacob R. Swartz

"What Does Fentanyl Have to Do With Alleged Drug Boats 2,600 Miles Away? Absolutely Nothing," by Tosin Akintola

"Trump Allegedly Misidentified a Colombian Fisherman as a Venezuelan 'Narcoterrorist,'" by Jacob Sullum

"The Constitution Does Not Allow the President To Unilaterally Blow Suspected Drug Smugglers to Smithereens," by Rand Paul

"They Built a Hemp Business in Good Faith but Washington Is About To Crush It," by Brittany E. Hunter

"Trump vs. the Constitution," by Damon Root

"5% of People Detained By ICE Have Violent Convictions, 73% No Convictions," by David J. Bier

"Hot August Fright: The Month Republicans Lost Their Minds Over Immigration," by Matt Welch

"How Lou Reed Inspired Anti-Communist Revolutionaries and the Rest of Us," by Matt Welch

"Václav Havel's Funeral: Why Truth Needs Love," by Matt Welch

 

Upcoming Reason Events

Reason Versus debate: Big Tech Does More Good Than Harm, December 10

• Producer: Paul Alexander
• Video Editor: Ian Keyser

What are we consuming this week?

Matt Welch

• Rock 'n' Roll: A New Play, by Tom Stoppard

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• Zootopia 2

Peter Suderman

• The Tainted Cup, by Robert Jackson Bennett

Nick Gillespie

• Oh, Mary!, by Cole Escola

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Comments

[Rick James]

Just so you know, Reason, the guy who seems to get quoted in this rag 3x a week, Mike Masnick has cheerfully said that what Mamdani proposes isn't anything radical and is well within the norms for any liberal democracy, and his plan to run grocery stores is only in places where there's been a clear market failure. So I think everyone in the L side of the aisle can calm down. Masnick has spoken.

[damikesc]

When they pack the SCOTUS and add more states to the country, Reason will applaud.

When they start to round up dissidents, Reason will applaud.

Reason --- like the Nazis, but with less style.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

No it's lying subhuman cancerous faggots like you retards that are doing it. All of you support socialism, and globalism. Fuck you all

[5.56]

Americans re ready for progress. You old people wont be able to hold them back forever - because youre old and you die.

[Don't look at me! ( Is the war over yet?)]

Is Economic Anxiety Driving People to Socialism?

No, it’s laziness and stupidity.

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

Government grown dependency has more to do with it. But you all raged against doge and welfare reforms.

Also your abundance and buy cheap Chinese shit pieces convince retards they deserve everything. Never talking about personal responsibility.

[5.56]

Nope, they just feel and know that there's a better, fairer way to do it thats still capitalist and proven to work - they see that every time they watch news or see stats about that mysterious land of Europe lol

[creech]

Two things: envy and thinking you are doing God's work.

[DesigNate]

Seeing it first hand through multiple lenses of family and friends, it breaks in to a few camps:

1. Do-gooder, bleeding heart types, usually affluent, who feel guilty they have so much when others don’t.

2. Starry eyed teens/young adults who truly believe “it will be different this time”.

3. People who are just plain envious of anyone with more money than them.

4. A wide swath of people who got screwed by the system but, for whatever reason, only place the blame at the feet of the super wealthy and corporations and think this is the way to right the ship, as it were.

I’m sure there’s some that I missed.

[5.56]

5. Social democrat types who have seen it work in practice for decades and know that social democracy is just a very functional variant of capitalism that has some basic care about people embedded in policy and grants their people benefits lik accessible health care, workers and renters rights, ample vacation, walkable cities, clean streets, low, diginified homeless populations, 5+ more years of life expectancy, superior education and increased quality of life. They are - for whatever reason - conflated with socialists, by an under-educated, obese, obsolete, soon to be forgotten subset of the american people that likes to wear red hats and care more about impotent right wing pundits like ck than about children shot at school; those red hatters are typicall cranky, unattractive and rightfully rejected by their friends and family, and, most importantly, rejected by attractive, modern unobtainable women; the red hatters are deeply puzzled and make whiny lists with spurious reasons why others may care about others, because they can't naturally grasp it, revealing that they are undereducated, brainwashed sociopaths and subject to removal by demographic shifts and better americans.

[Don't look at me! ( Is the war over yet?)]

I suggest you move to one of these magical places.

[Love to be Wrong]

Yes, great social welfare places like Minnesota where Somalis can live in palaces and drive sports cars paid for by working American families. Sounds like paradise!

[TJJ2000]

"Is Economic Anxiety Driving People to Socialism?"
Other way around.
It is Socialism driving Economic Anxiety.
As it always has/does.

...because Gov 'Guns' doesn't make sh*t.
...even when it's a whole [WE] mob of a monopoly of Gun-Force.
...and that is all that separates 'Government' from any other entity.

Once upon a time the USA 'Government' was there to defends Individual Liberty & ensures Justice for all against 'Gun' packing criminals.

But as the 'socialist' (i.e. criminal) fanboy-ism rises the very 'Guns' that are there to do that will be used to take your Liberty and ensure Injustice for all the criminal-minds who won't *EARN* a GD thing.

[SRG2]

For decades the right has described any number of policies they didn't like as "socialist", regardless of how (in)accurate the description. Small wonder then that the people who do like them think that they rather like socialism.

[GraniteLiberty303]

Reason Magazine has not done the cause of limited government any favors by insisting upon remaining glued to the DC/CA/NY political bubbles. A libertarian magazine wedded to the cultural bubbles of progressivism will only ever come off as progressive-lite.

Libertarians have done a piss poor job in promoting a culture that supports limited government. Without that culture it becomes near impossible to sell voluntarist/free market ideas and solutions. It's about more than just telling someone to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Promoting churches, mutual aide societies, rebuilding communities through voluntarism. If we don't get that cultural part right then we'll just keep electing more Mamdanis, and it won't just be in NYC.

[Love to be Wrong]

That's exactly what I was thinking listening to their doomsayer speak about how bad the Trump administration is. They are in the DC/CA/NY bubble and aren't even able to think clearly about some of these issues. They never sounded this apocalyptic when Biden was in power.

[Love to be Wrong]

The Reason team didn't even mention that Obama fired missiles at whole wedding parties in foreign countries, killing hundreds or thousands at a time, and people who definitely were not a threat to Americans at home. Trump is firing missiles at small numbers of fentanyl runners who kill 200 Americans per day. Yes there are risks, but nothing is perfect. At least they are locked onto an actual target that is causing hundreds of thousands of actual death to Americans. At the very least, could they acknowledge that this is better than the previous administrations, and that in this regard things seem to be getting better in this aspect?