Who on earth knows the origins of the ever-fluctuating and -misattributed quotation “He who is not a liberal at [x years] has no heart, and he who is not a conservative at [y years] has no brain.” (It’s not Churchill, some say Disraeli, maybe it was Krauthammer gone back in time after lifting Bill and Ted’s time machine — it’s no matter.)
The line has always had a point, though. What are your real-life, economic concerns at 20 or 25, really? A mortgage? Doubtful. Roughly one-fifth of those 25 and younger were homeowners as of 2013, and one-third of those between 25 and 29. Although these figures have fluctuated some over the last 20 years — it rose more than 10 percentage points for the younger group between 1994 and 2005 before declining to its current rate — the young have not had large homeownership rates on a percentage basis.
What about taxes? You don’t make too much as a young person, so you don’t fall into too high a tax bracket. You don’t own too much, so you don’t have to pay many taxes on assets.
You’re probably not a business owner, so you don’t have to worry about regulations. Thanks to Obamacare, you can be on your parents’ health insurance nowadays until you’re 26, so that’s not a concern.
What is a concern is gasoline. Groceries. The occasional booze. Items that are day-to-day, not owed through costly, monthly billing, save student loan debt. Overall, the big-dollar financial items that weigh on families are largely irrelevant to young people.
So it’s natural, right, that absent a tangible connection to the economic issues of the day — no mortgage, a low tax burden, no health premiums, no daily consequences of government issues like debt and impending entitlement shortfalls — a young person wouldn’t be riled up by the government’s role in fiscal policy and oversight? From a lush Reason-Rupe survey of Millennials published this week:
It shouldn’t come as much surprise that social tolerance matters more than economics to this age cohort. Few have married, purchased a home, had children, or paid much in taxes yet—all experiences that can make economics more salient. Indeed, this report finds that millennials become more fiscally conservative as their income rises or as they learn they will be responsible for paying for things. Support for income redistribution, government guarantees, and government spending for the poor all decline as they age and make more money. Similarly, as millennials roll off their parents’ health insurance plans and begin paying for their own policies, they begin to oppose paying higher premiums to provide for the uninsured.
It’s only natural that the “brain” part kicks in as you get older.
From the 30,000-foot view, this underscores the importance of conservatism immersing itself in and messaging on culture to youth — “speaking to their issues.” They’re listening.
