# Don’t laugh off Bernie Sanders’ communist AI-heist attempt — young voters are falling for it > Source: > Published: 2026-06-06 16:02:47+00:00 Far-left politicians want to annihilate property rights — and a large share of young voters are buying into it. That’s a red flag: Our school systems have become socialist indoctrination factories. This week [Sen. Bernie Sanders ](https://nypost.com/2026/05/27/opinion/will-ai-put-us-all-out-of-work-its-finally-time-we-start-figuring-it-out/)(I-Vt.), a leftist agenda-setter, called on the federal government to confiscate half the value of the nation’s largest artificial intelligence companies. Advertisement He’s targeting OpenAI, Anthropic (creator of Claude) and xAI, for starters. Making his announcement on Facebook and in a New York Times opinion essay, Sanders said he’ll introduce legislation to slap these companies with a 50% “ownership tax” — literally grabbing company stock without paying anything for it, in shocking defiance of the US Constitution. That’s expropriating private property for government use, an idea straight out of Vladimir Lenin’s or Fidel Castro’s playbook. Advertisement His flimsy justification: “Since AI 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 that’s come before. The same argument could rationalize demanding 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? Advertisement Sanders’ bill is going nowhere while there’s a Republican majority in Congress — but ignore it at your peril. It’s a warning: Outright confiscation is [the left’s latest scheme](https://nypost.com/2026/05/27/opinion/miranda-devine-history-shows-that-mamdanis-dangerous-plan-to-seize-property-from-landlords-only-leads-to-misery-and-tyranny/) to remedy inequality and pay for ever-expanding public benefits. Sanders lifted 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? Advertisement You’d think they’d recall that the US Constitution’s “takings clause” — Bill of Rights, Amendment Five — bars the government from grabbing property without “just compensation.” Ivory-tower universities tend to reward faculty for their imaginative proposals, and Polcz and Bearer-Friend have [admitted their unconstitutional plan](https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/taxlaw/article/view/14478__;!!F0Stn7g!EGbihFxQ-4yUEYIACK48xk7uU7dB8djVVspisqlxv6NFFy2g35Fsab9f8QNY0o5X-iHGHABu2dJug218Bm8H$) would be challenged in federal court. Sanders couldn’t care less. And New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani agrees: He [warned us at his inauguration](https://nypost.com/2026/01/16/opinion/mamdanis-warmth-of-collectivism-will-leave-us-out-in-the-cold/) that he’d introduce New Yorkers to the “warmth of collectivism.” His new Block by Block housing plan proposes[ seizing apartment buildings](https://nypost.com/2026/05/26/us-news/mamdani-pledges-aggressive-crackdown-on-bad-landlords-says-nyc-will-work-to-transfer-ownership-to-tenants/) from their owners to give them to what he calls “responsible stewards,” including tenants — another outrageous attack on property rights. Pay attention to how fast Democratic Socialist candidates spouting collectivism are making headway. This week’s primaries produced outright wins or runoff advancements for more than a dozen Democratic Socialists-backed candidates in five states. Who likes these ideas? Young voters. Advertisement Members of Generation Z in particular [have a rose-colored view](https://nypost.com/2025/07/22/us-news/6-in-10-zoomers-like-socialism-no-wonder-theyre-hoodwinked-by-zohran-mamdani/) of socialism, communism and collectivism. According to a recent Heartland Institute/Rasmussen Reports poll, nearly 60% of likely voters age 18 to 24 want a Democratic Socialist in the White House in 2028. Mandani captured 78% of under-30 voters in November, per an ABC News exit poll. The Democratic Socialists of America, once the haven of radical retirees reliving their 1960s glory days, is now powered by the young: DSA saw its membership’s average age plunge from 68 to 33 in the last decade. Advertisement Blame the leftist indoctrination in K-12 schools and in universities for this socialist and communist enthusiasm. A staggering 62% of voters age 18 to 29 hold a favorable view of socialism, and 34% favor communism. That’s what they’re being taught. CoolKid Facts, a popular education website aimed mainly at elementary-age students, teaches kids 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 — again without discussing the atrocities that go hand in hand with property confiscation. Some states are wisely pushing back. [Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ](https://nypost.com/2022/05/09/desantis-makes-nov-7-victims-of-communism-day-in-fl-schools/)signed a new law last year requiring his state’s public schools to teach “the brutal realities of life under communism.” Texas has passed a similar law. That’s one way to counter heavy-handed teachers’ union indoctrination. While they’re at it, these states should also teach students about the Takings Clause, and explain to them why property rights are the engine of economic growth. Confiscating capital is the fastest way to kill an economy, as history has proven again and again. Sanders’ AI-theft scheme is just the beginning. 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 lieutenant governor of New York.*