Far-left politicians want to annihilate property rights. A large share of young voters are buying into it – a red flag that our school systems have become socialist indoctrination factories.
On Monday, one of the far Left's agenda setters, Sen. Bernie Sanders, called on the federal government to confiscate half the value of each of the nation's largest artificial intelligence companies. He's targeting OpenAI, Anthropic (creator of Claude), and xAI for starters.
Making his announcement on Facebook and in a New York Times opinion piece, Sanders said he'll introduce a bill in Congress to slap these companies with a 50 percent ownership tax – literally grabbing company stock without paying anything for it – in shocking defiance of the U.S. Constitution.
It's straight out of the playbook of Lenin, Castro, or another communist dictator – expropriating private property for government use.
Here's Sanders' flimsy argument: "Since A.I. is built on the collective knowledge of humanity, the wealth it generates must benefit humanity."
Sorry, senator. All inventions and breakthroughs are built on the knowledge we already have. That same argument could be used to demand half the stock of a biotech company that produces a cancer cure, or a musical composer who writes a hit.
Who would invest or invent if the government could swoop in and take half?
Sanders' bill is going nowhere while there's a Republican majority in Congress.
But ignore it at your peril. It's a warning. Confiscating property is the Left's latest talking point to remedy inequality and pay for ever-expanding public benefits.
Sanders borrowed the idea from two law professors: Jeremy Bearer-Friend of the George Washington University School of Law and Sarah Polcz of the University of California at Davis School of Law. Lawyers, can you believe it?
The Constitution's "takings clause" – Bill of Rights, Amendment Five – bars government from taking property without providing "just compensation."
Ivory tower universities like to reward faculty for their imaginative proposals, not for sticking to what the law allows. Polcz and Bearer-Friend admitted their idea would be challenged in federal court as unconstitutional. Sanders couldn't care less.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani agrees. He warned at his inauguration that he was going to introduce New Yorkers to the "warmth of collectivism." His new "Block by Block" housing plan proposes transferring building ownership from current owners to what he calls "responsible stewards"; this includes handing buildings over to tenants. Another outrageous attack on property rights.
Pay attention to how fast Democratic Socialists of America candidates spouting collectivism are making headway. Last week's primaries produced outright wins or runoff advancements for more than a dozen candidates in five states backed by the DSA.
Who likes these ideas? Gen Z voters who have a rose-colored view of socialism, communism, and collectivism.
According to a Heartland Institute/Rasmussen Reports poll at the end of 2025, nearly 60 percent of likely voters aged 18 to 24 want a democratic socialist in the White House in 2028.
Mandani captured 78 percent of under-30 voters in November, according to an ABC exit poll.
The DSA – at one time the haven of radical retirees – is now powered by the young. It saw the average age of its membership plunge from 68 to 33 in less than a decade.
The leftist indoctrination in K-12 schools, as well as universities, is largely to blame for the youth vote's enthusiasm for socialism and communism. A staggering 62 percent of voters ages 18-29 hold a favorable view of socialism, and 34 percent favor communism.
That's what they're taught in school. CoolKid Facts, a popular education website, teaches students that communists believe "the state should provide every citizen with their basic needs ... and no one is above anyone else." Sounds utopian. No mention of the brutalities, starvation, and mass murders committed in the name of communism by Lenin or Stalin, Mao or Pol Pot, Castro, or Che Guevara.
In New York state social studies classes, communism and socialism are presented as two economic systems that make things more equal and fair, with no historical references to the atrocities committed by socialist and communist regimes confiscating property.
Wisely, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new law last year requiring that public school students in Florida be taught "the brutal realities of life under communism." Texas passed a similar law. That's one way to counter the heavy-handed indoctrination by the teachers' unions.
Let's make sure students also learn about the takings clause and why protecting property rights is essential to economic growth. Confiscating capital is the fastest way to kill an economy.
Sanders' AI confiscation scheme is just the beginning. Allow that industry to be nationalized, and the left will soon target others, destroying our economy and our personal liberty. The best defense – the only defense – is an educated electorate. Considering the misguided attitudes of many Gen Z voters, there's no time to waste.
Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and Chairman & Founder of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths at www.hospitalinfection.org. Follow her on X @Betsy_McCaughey.