Socialism is rising in popularity among young people. About forty percent of Americans would rather live in a socialist country and the majority of that number are younger women, according to a poll over the summer. Why is it that young people are looking to a system that has never worked in any country that’s tried it?

Sen. Rand Paul, author of new book, “The Case Against Socialism,” and proponent of the Penny Plan, has a possible answer to that question:

Young Americans have increasingly warmed to socialism because they have forgotten what governments were most closely associated with that system, Paul claimed Monday on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

Paul told host Tucker Carlson that when he was younger, he and friends would observe political figures and say, “Well, that liberal is probably a socialist — but they would never admit to it.”

“Now you have people actually running on the label of being a Democratic socialist. I think some of it is they have forgotten their history.”

Turning to his book, Paul said it lays out how several 20th-century leaders were associated with socialism.

“We talk about the fact Hitler was a socialist, the fact Stalin was a socialist, the fact Mao was.”

Paul said Democratic socialists and their supporters today point to Scandinavian countries as examples of what they believe to be a humane and beneficial socialist system.

“Scandinavia, first, is not socialist,” he said.

“Bernie [Sanders] is actually too much of a socialist to even get elected in Denmark. The prime minister of Denmark said, ‘Bernie, quit calling us socialists, we’re open for business and you’re ruining our business by telling the world we’re socialists — and we’re not.'”

History is important. History teaches us where we came from and teaches us our past mistakes. Socialism, time and time again, has been a mistake. It’s important that we advise younger generations to go back and take a closer look at socialist nations’ history in the last 150 years. By looking back, everyone should agree socialism should not be tried ever again.