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LAS VEGAS – Speaking at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas, Diogo Costa, president of the U.S.-based Foundation for Economic Education, warned that surging living costs are encouraging what he calls a new wave of “affordability socialism” among Generation Z. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Costa said that while young people generally prefer to live in market economies rather than in countries such as Venezuela or Cuba, many also support heavy-handed government intervention when they believe it will ease their cost-of-living pressures. He cited growing support for rent freezes, free public transport, and extensive price controls on groceries and other essentials, and argued that this trend is visible not only in U.S. cities such as New York and across California, but in many countries worldwide. LAS VEGAS – Costa described these proposals as a new form of “anti-economics,” saying they revive familiar patterns of 20th-century socialism under the banner of solving affordability problems. He argued that rapid advances in technologies such as artificial intelligence are creating a “golden age” of innovation, but that the free-market ideas underpinning this progress are poorly understood and increasingly under attack. Drawing on his background studying the Austrian school of economics and his childhood in Brazil during a period of hyperinflation and strict protectionism, Costa said his experiences of daily price changes and limited access to imported goods convinced him that economic principles must be taught and “re-taught” every generation to prevent a slide back into inflation, protectionism and state control.

Prepared by Christopher Adams and reviewed by editorial team.