Forty percent of American adults couldnt come up with $400 if needed for any emergency.
Forty percent of American adults couldn't come up with $400 if they had an emergency. ljubaphoto / Getty Images

When a hedge fund billionaire says it, people pay more attention than usual.

So Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is currently flagging this 2018 admission from a hedge fund billionaire who said that "capitalism basically is not working for the majority of people. That’s just the reality."

It's a reality that has Gen Z and Millennials embracing socialism in such significant numbers, per a recent Axios poll, that it's likely Republican attacks on Medicare for All and other supposedly "socialist" proposals are helping, rather than hurting, the Democrats' standing among young voters.

Here's another thing to keep in mind as the pre-presidential campaign brings us more and more shouting about "socialist," "redistributionist," and "big-government" policies:

Large majorities of Americans really like plans that can fairly be described using those terms.

"About 75 percent of Americans favor higher taxes for the ultrawealthy," law professor Tim Wu wrote in a New York Times op-ed last week.

"The idea of a federal law that would guarantee paid maternity leave," Wu added, "attracts 67 percent support...The list goes on."

And yet, so does the anti-"socialist" messaging from Trump and the Republican Party.