Recent polls indicate that many people under 30 view socialism and communism favorably. (For Marx, those words were synonyms.) It seems that socialism and communism are “in.” What’s going on? A self-described “democratic socialist,” Zohran Mamdani, won the Democratic nomination in the New York City mayoralty primary. He promises to set up city-owned nonprofit grocery stores and plans other giveaways. He favors a $30 minimum wage. He also says billionaires should not exist. Will he set up camps?

Members of Congress, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also call themselves “democratic socialists,” but it’s unclear what they mean by the term. When Sanders was asked what he meant by socialism, he said it was the realization that “we’re all in this together.” That’s helpful.

Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and their ilk do not call for expropriating and nationalizing the means of production. (I’m not sure about Mamdani.) Instead, they want an even bigger welfare state, for instance, “Medicare for all.” That’s bad—the welfare state makes people poorer—but it’s not socialism. They further illustrate their confusion by claiming that the Scandinavian countries are socialist, which they’re not. They score high on rankings of economic freedom. That would be a strange sort of socialism, no?

This tilt toward a murkily defined socialism and communism suggests cultural and ethical considerations, not social science, are at work. These days, it’s edgy and romantic to declare oneself a socialist, especially if you wear a Che Guevara T-shirt. I suppose the word democratic is intended to make socialism, the record of which is horrendous, sound humane. It does no such thing, no more than the word national makes socialism sound sweet.

At any rate, as the Cato Institute’s Michael Chapman wrote this year:

A recent survey by the Cato Institute and YouGov paints a troubling picture: 62 percent of Americans aged 18–29 say they hold a “favorable view” of socialism, and 34 percent say the same of communism. This is shocking given that communism is responsible for 100 million deaths worldwide and is rooted in socialism, the same philosophy that spawned both Mussolini’s fascism and Hitler’s National Socialism. To favor socialism is to flirt with tyranny.

That is stunning, considering that free-market capitalism, however imperfectly practiced —that is, profit-motivated global investment and trade—has increased per-capita wealth and lengthened life spans worldwide by an astonishing degree over the last few hundred years. What used to be called the “Third World” got wealthier to the extent it had economic dealings with the developed world. If young people don’t understand what economist and historian Deirdre McCloskey calls “the Great Enrichment,” what does that say about government-run education? …

No less than the socialists, the interventionists despise consensual profit-driven market activity as unsightly and exploitative. This aversion is as much aesthetic as moral, but on both counts it is wrong. That Adam Smith’s “system of natural liberty” has improved the lot of mankind, and will continue to do so if left unmolested, is a beautiful thing. Self-made blindness explains why so many people do not appreciate it. Workers and consumers are not victims. They are beneficiaries. The world is increasingly divided into haves and have-a-bit-mores. The have-nots have been moving on up, especially if they work at it.

reminded us that capitalism is not about profits only. It’s also about losses, which shines a whole different light on the matter.

In the eyes of the interventionists the mere existence of profits is objectionable. They speak of profit without dealing with its corollary, loss. They do not comprehend that profit and loss are the instruments by means of which the consumers keep a tight rein on all entrepreneurial activities. It is profit and loss that make the consumers supreme in the direction of business. It is absurd to contrast production for profit and production for use. On the unhampered market a man can earn profits only by supplying the consumers in the best and cheapest way with the goods they want to use. Profit and loss withdraw the material factors of production from the hands of the inefficient and place them in the hands of the more efficient. It is their social function to make a man the more influential in the conduct of business the better he succeeds in producing commodities for which people scramble. The consumers suffer when the laws of the country prevent the most efficient entrepreneurs from expanding the sphere of their activities. What made some enterprises develop into “big business” was precisely their success in filling best the demand of the masses.

Who loses when interventionists get their way? Regular people do.