Andrew Young has been cited for calling the United States system "socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the poor," and Martin Luther King Jr. frequently used this wording in his speeches.
[10] In winter 2006/2007, in response to criticism about oil imports from Venezuela, that country being under the leadership of Hugo Chávez, the founder and president of Boston's Citizens Energy Corporation, Joseph P. Kennedy II, countered with a critique of the U.S. system which he characterized as "a kind of socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the poor that leaves the most vulnerable out in the cold.
With regard to the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Ron Blackwell, chief economist of AFL–CIO, used the expression "Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor" to characterize the system.
It is to politics what McDonald's is to food.In 2022, economist Yanis Varoufakis offered a similar version of this phrase in his critique of the response of governments and central banks to the 2008 financial crisis and the 2021–2022 inflation surge, describing these measures as "nothing short of lavish socialism for capital and harsh austerity for labor.
"[23] In 2023, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used a variation of this phrase on Tucker Carlson Tonight, saying that in the contemporary United States, "there's a cushy socialism for the rich and this kind of brutal, merciless capitalism for the poor.