Leading economist warns of rise of 'Gen Z affordability socialism'

Artificial intelligence is fundamentally transforming the global economy at breakneck speed, but Diogo Costa argues that the real threat to prosperity isn't technological disruption; it's the return of bad economic ideas.As the president of FEE (the Foundation for Economic Education), America's oldest free-market think tank, Costa is concerned that the affordability crisis is providing the perfect opportunity to tempt the next generation with the ideas of socialism, and argues that economic education is the antidote.Recently, he sat down with Fox News Digital at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas for a discussion about the intellectual defense of free markets, the intersection of freedom and technology, and how his upbringing in Brazil brings a unique perspective to today's economic policy debates.

GEN Z IS WORKING HARD, BUT THE ECONOMY IS PUTTING THE AMERICAN DREAM OUT OF REACH FOR MANY"The biggest challenge today is the different ways that ‘anti-economics’ keeps reappearing. And this time, it's reappearing through a new kind of socialism. So through the 20th century, we had different flavors of socialism, labor union socialism, environmental socialism, anti-globalization socialism.

Now we see this cost-of-living socialism, affordability crisis socialism."While young people are aware that they are better off in a market economy, Costa argues, they still want heavy-handed intervention if they perceive it benefits them."Young people, they want to live in a market economy.

They don't want to move to Venezuela or Cuba, but they want price controls in everything. They want to freeze the rent, they want free rides in buses, they want to make sure that groceries are either run by the government or price controlled somehow. And this is not just a phenomenon in New York City or California.

This is something that's happening globally. "And this is the new kind of ‘anti-economics.’ So, Leonard Read [founder of FEE] understood that economics is always one generation away from turning pr