Economic dunce-in-chief Paul Krugman’s pretense that concerns over the current threat of socialism in the U.S. are just McCarthyism rebranded is the equivalent of an ostrich burying his face in the sand.
Krugman published another doozy July 2 on his self-aggrandizing Substack, sneering in his headline that “There Are Very Few Socialists in America.”
Krugman attempted to dunk on a Fox News poll indicating that socialism was gaining traction among the electorate. “But I don’t believe it. Young people may be more receptive to the word socialism, but that’s only because right-wingers constantly use that word to smear policies that have nothing to do with real socialism — i.e., government ownership of the means of production.” Krugman apparently has tunnel vision, because his narrow definition of socialism ignores that it also encompasses control of the means of production (not just ownership), which expanded dramatically throughout the 20th century U.S. and culminated in the overbloated regulatory state hamstringing economic growth today.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute estimated in 2025 that regulatory costs gut over $2 trillion annually from the U.S. economy.
But Krugman just acted like none of this screamed “socialism,” and completely dismissed the disturbing trend of socialism being embraced by the Democratic base: “The fact is that very few Americans — even among politicians who call themselves ‘democratic socialists’ — are really socialists.” It’s a wonder how he would interpret the recently released Pew survey which found that “[a]bout a third of Democrats (32%) say they like leaders who describe themselves” as “democratic socialists.” The Washington Examiner reported July 6 that the Democratic Socialists of America organization just “broke membership records” after topping 120,000 on Independence Day of all days.
But Krugman watered all of this down as if the evidence to the contrary didn’t exist:
What many, I’d say a majority, of Americans support is what Europeans call social democracy — an ideology that is OK with living in a mostly market-driven economic system in which some people make much more money than others, but one that advocates policies to tame markets and inequality with progressive taxation, safety net programs, and regulations.
News flash, Krugman: the U.S. has the most punitive and progressive tax system in the developed world, vastly outpacing even left-wing Spain which is currently governed by the — *checks notes* — Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party. Even Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle conceded that the reason why “socialism” was a much easier sell in the early-to-mid 20th century U.S. was a “practically virgin tax base” that “was ripe for the plucking.” This begs the question about what highfalutin red line exactly do U.S. cities need to cross before Krugman admits socialism is actually a thing nowadays? Who knows, but maybe Krugman’s delusion is exacerbated by the fact that he routinely peddles socialist ideas himself, like minting a trillion-dollar coin to pay down the national debt.
According to Krugman’s brain, however, socialism appears to be on the rise “[m]ainly because right-wing propagandists continually smear social democratic policies as socialist, trying to make popular, mainstream policy ideas sound extreme.” Good grief.
Gallup News had released a devastating report in September 2025 finding that the support for capitalism amongst Americans slipped to 54 percent, the lowest on record. Meanwhile, per Gallup, “Perceptions of socialism remain steady at 39% positive.” For a supposed Nobel Prize winner whose entire forte is supposedly in data analytics, a “39%” figure is nowhere near the ballpark of what researchers would call statistically insignificant and rubber-stamp Krugman’s prima facie assertion that “There Are Very Few Socialists in America.” According to the survey, 66 percent of Democrats held a positive view of “socialism” proper. That’s what is called a “majority,” Krugman.
Even recent history blows up Krugman’s argument. The socialist May Day protests which blanketed major American cities on May 1st to rail against the bourgeoisie clearly didn’t give Krugman a clue either. The so-called “May Day Coalition” of leftist groups organizing the events — which included outfits heavily backed by leftist billionaires George Soros and Neville Roy Singham — boasted on its website, “On May 1, 2026, millions of workers, students, and families made their voices heard in actions across the country to demand a nation that puts workers over billionaires, with many refusing business as usual through No School. No Work. No Shopping.” Nah, that’s not socialism, per Krugman’s logic.
Then again, Krugman is the same pseudo-intellectual who claimed in 2023 that leftists had “no significant influence on the Democratic Party.” Krugman’s entire schtick is living divorced from reality, like when he told President Joe Biden before his inauguration in January 2021, “Don’t worry about inflation.” Perhaps Krugman should retire from his computer and try touching grass once in a while, especially given that he supposedly took a day off July 7 because of a “crashing headache.” This is what happens when you suffer from perpetual brain hurt.
