A reflection on my conversations with left-wing university students: Last week, I went to speak at the University of Exeter’s Debating Union, arguing against the motion “capitalism has failed the working class.” My co-debater @JasperOstle and I made what I thought was a compelling case. We spoke of infant mortality rates, medicine, social mobility, life-saving technologies, and for a future of prosperity and abundance. After the debate, I went to the student bar and spoke to a few students who disagreed with my position, many of whom were socialists, and all of whom were respectful and intellectually curious. Interestingly, they thought supporting “capitalism” meant supporting the status quo. We discussed high housing costs, for example, which most would agree are a problem of government artificially restricting supply. But the students said that this was an example of the government operating in a “capitalist” system. We discussed government subsidies and tax breaks and regulatory capture, which they also thought were examples of “capitalism.” Of course, the Government giving out subsidies or tax breaks or other privileges to particular businesses or industries, stopping housing development, and manipulating the market is quite the opposite of what I would call “capitalism.” Perhaps that term is so corrupted that we ought to do away with it altogether. I’ve come away from those conversations with that specific problem in mind. Those of us that believe in free markets have failed to explain the difference between free markets and the status quo. Instead, many young people think that the only political options to choose from are different types of big government.