EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Economist Paul Rubin discusses his book on socialism and how to make the case against it on college campuses

With socialism seeing a bump in support among college students and young Americans more generally, Emory University professor emeritus and economist Paul Rubin decided to do something about it.

“I was just astounded that students, so many students, have a favorable view of socialism,” Rubin said in an exclusive interview with Campus Reform. “And particularly because they’ll be the ones that are hurt by socialism.”

Rubin, who is a retired professor, wrote the book, A Student’s Guide to Socialism: How It Will Trash Your Lives, which exposes higher education institutions for not doing a good job of teaching students about socialism. 

“Part of me felt guilty because we professors, economics professors particularly, have not done a good job of teaching our students the way socialism works,” he said.

[RELATED: Venezuelan socialism victims send message to American socialists]

Rubin said his book focuses on projecting the future, rather than learning about the past.

“Most books about socialism are historical. They talk about different countries that have been socialist, and how badly they’ve done, which is true, they’ve all done badly. But for students, that’s not so relevant. That’s history. That’s what’s happened in the past,” Rubin said. “But what I do in this book is I say, if you’re a 20, 22-year-old, 25-year-old college student, or even younger, a high school student today, and we would adopt a socialist economy, which we’re closer to doing than I thought we would be, what would the next 40 years of your life be like? So it’s really a forward-looking book rather than a past-looking book.”

Rubin argues that a socialist economy would bring a lot of uncertainty for college students when they graduate.

“If we were to start to adopt socialism, it would create a lot of uncertainty. Nobody would know what we were doing,” he said. 

“And when there’s uncertainty in the economy, aside from the fact that growth will be lower, employers don’t want to hire,” he added.

Rubin discussed with Campus Reform how tough economic times produced by high amounts of student debt may push college students to believe that socialism will solve their problems. 

“The money that they expect to get has to come from somewhere. And it comes from higher taxes. Higher taxes mean employers don’t hire as much, it means the salaries are lower, it means there’s less innovation, less investment,” Rubin said. 

Rubin suggested talking to students who have lived in socialist countries to gain a better understanding of what socialism would really be like in America.

“There’s students around from countries in Latin America that have...lived under socialism. And if you could just talk to some of those students, I know they tend to be the ones who are most resistant to it,” he said. 

“You ask them what happened when your country became socialist, they will be happy to tell you and you will learn that it’s really it’s really very, very bad,” Rubin added.

“Venezuela has just recently adopted socialism. It went from being a thriving one of the wealthiest economies in South America to a disaster, where people are starving, trying to leave the country. Women are engaging in prostitution because they would do anything for money to feed their children. It’s become a total disaster,” Rubin said.

Rubin said students don’t realize how much socialism would affect their future. 

“The evidence is very clear from economists,” he added. 

“The people that are now wishing for socialism, as bad as it would be for everyone, it will be even worse for them because they will be the first generation to move into socialism.”

Rubin’s book is available for purchase on Amazon and at other retail stores such as Barnes & Noble.

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