Diogo Costa, president of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), has warned that a growing number of Gen Z Americans are embracing what he calls "affordability socialism" — support for price controls and heavier government intervention in the economy — even as they say they want to live under a market system. Speaking at FreedomFest, Costa argued that the biggest threat to prosperity is not artificial intelligence or technological disruption, but the resurgence of economic ideas that have historically failed, such as price-fixing and expanded state control over markets.

Costa's comments frame this as a generational contradiction: young people voicing support for capitalism in principle while backing policies, such as price controls, that undercut it in practice. He suggested this reflects mounting frustration with the cost of living, which is being channelled into calls for government intervention rather than market-based solutions, and called for a renewed intellectual defence of free-market economics to counter the trend.