Every time Brent D. Griffiths publishes a story, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox!

By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider’s
Terms of Service and
Privacy Policy.

Peter Thiel's theory for why some millennials have embraced socialism is receiving renewed attention following New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's victory.

"When 70% of Millennials say they are pro-socialist, we need to do better than simply dismiss them by saying that they are stupid or entitled or brainwashed; we should try and understand why," Thiel wrote in a January 2020 email to top Facebook leaders, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg, and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.

Billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya posted a screenshot of the exchange as business and tech leaders began to digest Mamdani's stunning rise as a self-described democratic socialist to lead the nation's largest city.

"Tl;dr too much student debt and lack of affordable housing keeps young people with negative capital for too long," Palihapitiya wrote on X. "And without a stake in the capitalist system, they will turn against it."

Here is Peter Thiel’s email to Zuck and Andreessen in Jan-2020 predicting socialism. Tl;dr too much student debt and lack of affordable housing keeps young people with negative capital for too long. And without a stake in the capitalist system, they will turn against it. pic.twitter.com/BOKgwJ2cV0

Thiel said that young Americans had grown fed up with a system that many may have felt had left them behind.

"from the perspective of a broken generational compact, there seems to be a pretty straightforward answer to me, namely, that when one has too much student debt or if housing is too unaffordable, then one will have negative capital for a long time and/or find it very hard to start accumulating capital in the form of real estate; and if one has no stake in the capitalist system, then one may well turn against it," Thiel wrote.

Often described as a libertarian, Thiel wrote that he "would be the last person to advocate for socialism," but it was important to understand why a large percentage of young Americans felt disconnected. Thiel spoke in support of President Donald Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention.