Socialism: The Newest Old Idea That Won’t Work

Bad proposals and programs are coming from both the left and the right. Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. “It is characteristic of the unlearned,” observed Calvin Coolidge in 1919, “that they are forever proposing something which is old, and because it has recently come to their own attention, supposing it to be new.” “I think what is so unique and refreshing about Donald Trump’s economic policies,” says Vice President J.D. Vance in 2026, “is that it is not the same old economic ideas that you would have heard 30, 40 years ago.” Matthew D. Mitchell is a senior fellow with the Fraser Institute, and an affiliated senior scholar with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Steven Globerman is a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute. More We Think You’d Like