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With each passing election, the socialist surge is rising. Bernie Sanders-backed Abdul El-Sayed won the Michigan Democratic Senate primary, defeating a well-funded establishment candidate. In Wisconsin, Francesca Hong — a democratic socialist who once called for canceling Thanksgiving — came within 3,000 votes of winning her state’s gubernatorial primary. The DSA darling Zohran Mamdani is already the mayor of America’s largest city.
Some argue that socialism has hit its high-water mark and is losing momentum. Count me skeptical. Socialism is gaining ground because, for too many, capitalism has become a spectator sport. The biggest reason more voters support state ownership is that fewer people are owners themselves.
Consider the numbers. The national homeownership rate sits at 65% — down from a peak of 69.2% in 2004 and below the 25-year average. Among Americans under 35, it has fallen to just 35.2%, down more than a percentage point from a year ago. The generational gap is stark: Just 57% of Americans in their mid-30s own homes today compared to 64% of their parents’ generation at the same age. With the 30-year mortgage rate recently climbing 6.69%, the homeownership rate is not about to improve anytime soon.
BILLIONS SPENT BY KEY FEDERAL AGENCY HASN’T MADE AMERICAN DREAM OF HOMEOWNERSHIP ANY EASIER: REPORT
The picture is similar in financial markets. Sixty-two percent of Americans own stock — but that number conceals the real story. Only 28% of households earning under $50,000 own any stock at all, for those with only a high school education or less, it’s 42%, and for those 18 to 29, it’s 44%.
Declining ownership rates create a perfect opportunity for the far left. People with property don’t like the government taking it. People without ownership see government-sponsored theft as more acceptable. Because it’s not state ownership that invigorates voters, but the promise that they too can share in the wealth of society.
THE NUMBERS DON’T LIE. YOUNG AMERICANS ARE FALLING IN LOVE … WITH SOCIALISM
This puts into perspective policies like Mamdani’s rent freeze — a false antidote to the difficulty of owning a home in New York. Rent freezes promise that people can stay in their apartments and the market cannot move them out. Likewise, when Sanders touts legislation to give the government a 50% stake in AI companies, it makes people feel like they have a stake in America’s biggest companies even if they don’t actually own a single stock.
Yet these policies attempt to address symptoms while worsening the disease. A rent freeze may let you stay in an apartment owned by somebody else, but it proactively prevents actual ownership by reducing supply, degrading building quality, and making conditions worse. And a government stake in AI companies may well flood the coffers of the IRS. But that does nothing to give actual people a stake in the success of high-growth companies.
EL-SAYED REVEALS HE WOULD GO ‘STEP FURTHER’ THAN SANDERS ON SOCIALIST PLAN FOR MAJOR US INDUSTRY
Still, however true these arguments are, they aren’t persuading voters. The most effective answer to Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America is not to point out the problems with socialism — it’s to give people an actual stake in society by increasing the number of homeowners and shareholders who have an interest in America’s success.
Founders and employees with skin in the game think longer term. They protect customers, watch costs, solve problems, and weather downturns differently because the outcome is partly theirs. They certainly don’t appreciate heavy-handed government.
And while not everyone is called to be a business owner, nearly everyone can be a homeowner. Business coalitions should be pushing cities to permit more housing, shorten approval times, and clear the regulatory barriers that make construction expensive. Companies can complement those efforts with matched savings programs, closing-cost assistance, and financial coaching for first-time buyers.
As AI threatens corporate headcounts, empowers small business development, and accelerates the pandemic-induced emptying of downtown office buildings, we can also convert surplus commercial space into residential units. Adaptive reuse avoids the embodied carbon of demolition and new construction — and buildings account for nearly 37% of total U.S. energy consumption. Bringing underutilized commercial space back to productive residential use is one of the most practical emissions reductions available in the built environment, delivering a housing win and a climate win simultaneously.
AMERICA’S BROKEN PERMITTING SYSTEM IS QUIETLY RAISING YOUR COST OF LIVING
The path to stock ownership needs to be widened too. Broad-based equity compensation — stock grants, profit-sharing, employee stock ownership plans — can turn workers into partners in growth. Automatic retirement enrollment, meaningful employer matching, and access to low-cost diversified investments can give workers a stake in American prosperity even before they can afford a home, especially if those investments are tied to high-growth fields like artificial intelligence or clean energy.
None of this requires turning companies into charities. It is capitalism with aligned incentives — workers who accumulate assets, communities that keep their employers, and a free-enterprise system defended by people protecting something they actually own.
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The DSA sells government control because too many Americans believe the private economy has no place for them. The strongest defense of capitalism is opening a credible path for people to not only find their place, but to own it.
