The Concordia Summit is being staged in Lexington this week. Concordia is a non-profit organization aimed at fostering, elevating, and sustaining cross-sector partnerships for social impact. A session on opening day focused on college students’ attitudes about the future. One question dealt with interest in socialism in a capitalistic society. UK Student Michaela Taylor said social media is connecting people her age to places where socialism is working.
“Where people are creating the change and not having to pay millions of dollars for health care and we see how that system works in other places and we’re more connected to that because of social media now,” said Taylor.
UK Student Body President Michael Hawse said his generation remembers the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has helped foster interest in socialism. Occupy Wall Street in 2011 raised concerns about social and economic inequality.
Another perspective came from UK Student Veronica Reyes (RAY-ez) who said the socialism format has caused much turmoil in her native country of Venezuela. “I have a lot of friends that are from Venezuela. These things did not work. These markets did not work. They had to flee and leave everything behind. So I have a very different perspective on it,” said Reyes.
The Concordia Summit concludes on Friday.