Most Young Canadians Who Support Socialism Not Willing to Pay the Taxes That Go With It: Study

A new Fraser Institute study finds that close to half of young Canadians prefer a socialist system, but generally don’t want to pay the higher taxes required to finance it. (The Canadian Press/Ryan Remiorz)

While two in five Canadians overall subscribe to the idea of socialism—with that number even higher for younger Canadians—few are willing to pay for the tax increases required to finance such a system, says a study by the Fraser Institute.

Among 1,006 Canadians surveyed, 46 percent of respondents aged 18-34 picked socialism when asked “What is the ideal economic system.” The number drops to 43 percent among respondents aged 35–54, and to 38 percent among those over 55.

The survey, accompanied by a report, was conducted in conjunction with think tanks in the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia, and the results were similar in those countries. 

“A whole segment of the population—not just in Canada but across the developed world—self-describes as socialist, but many of them have never lived in a world with genuine socialism nor the misery it imposed,” said Jason Clemens, the study’s co-author and executive vice-president of the Fraser Institute, in a Feb. 22 news release.

Notably, the study asked the respondents to define socialism, providing them with three alternative definitions.

Only 25 percent of Canadians polled defined socialism in the conventional sense—government owning and controlling businesses and industries. Sixty-five percent defined socialism as government providing more services, while 57 percent believe socialism is best defined as government providing a guaranteed minimum income.

As for how the government should finance the increased spending on social programs or provide a guaranteed minimum income, only 31 percent supported an all-encompassing increase in personal income taxes, while 16 percent supported raising the goods and services tax.

Out of four different tax proposals provided to respondents to finance a socialist system, most (72 percent) preferred slapping a new wealth tax on the top 1 percent of income earners, while 59 percent supported increasing personal income taxes on the top 10 percent of income earners.

“This is an important observation, because it’s likely that in answering this question, the vast majority of respondents assumed that the tax increase would not affect them,” the authors wrote.

However, Fraser Institute senior fellow and study co-author Steven Globerman noted that such tax increases wouldn’t “generate anywhere near enough revenue to pay for the higher levels of spending linked with socialism.”

“If Canadians want a larger government and substantially higher government spending, then all Canadians, and not just top income earners, will have to pay higher taxes to finance it,” he said in the release.

The findings on this aspect were similar for the United States, UK, and Australia.

“Critically, the results suggest that no age group in any of the surveyed countries indicated a general willingness to pay for the costs associated with their favoured definition(s) of socialism,” the authors wrote.

The study noted that support for socialism as the ideal economic system declines as age increases. On the whole, 52 percent of Canadians agree that capitalism is the preferable economic system, compared to 24 percent who prefer socialism.

The study is based on polling data from Leger, which was contracted by the Fraser Institute in the fourth quarter of 2022 to conduct surveys on the three distinct sets of questions. The first set of questions examines perceptions of and support for capitalism and socialism, the second set identifies how respondents define socialism, and the third set assesses respondents’ preferences for different tax increases to pay for socialism.

The study is part of a new multimedia project by the Fraser Institute titled “The Realities of Socialism,” conducted in collaboration with the Institute of Economic Affairs in the UK, the Institute of Public Affairs in Australia, and the Fund for American Studies in the United States.