What is so startling about the rise of Democratic Socialism is not that young people are realizing that the economy is rigged against them. It absolutely is. What is concerning is the lack of an accurate assessment of how it is rigged. Young people who believe in the vision of Democratic Socialism will often say that the fault of their economic struggles is the “billionaire class,” and their ownership over such vast amounts of wealth relative to the rest of us.

One of the questions asked of me the most as a mother of eight children has been, “You know how this happens, right?” Having so many children was not a plan. When my husband and I married we were both older, and as I was recently diagnosed with a second autoimmune disease, there was uncertainty about how my body would respond to pregnancy. We also weren’t sure if we’d be a fertile couple, even without my health complications. Infertility affects roughly 15 percent of couples and we might’ve been one of them. We were, however, open to children.