Peter Thiel is a great American success story for any number of reasons, not the least of which is that he wasn’t actually born in America, but came to the land of opportunity to make his mark on the world. Thiel is also a fierce intellect and a keen observer of economic and cultural developments.
Recently, Thiel’s view of young people has been in the news. In January 2020, Thiel was giving guidance to senior executives at Facebook about how to engage with millennials. He encouraged the executives to try to understand why that cohort held socialism in such high esteem. “[W]e need to do better than simply dismiss them by saying that they are stupid or entitled or brainwashed.” He went on to identify the source of millennial discontent as “when one has too much student debt or if housing is too unaffordable, then one will have negative capital … if one has no stake in the capitalist system, then one may turn against it.” Theil recently gave an interview to the Free Press, elaborating on this observation. He noted, among other things, that “capitalism is not working for a lot of people in New York City.”
