In 2016, Democrats were about as favorable toward capitalism (58%) as socialism (56%). But after President Donald Trump took office, Democrats became more favorable toward socialism. Today, 64% of Democrats have favorable opinions of socialism and 45% are favorable to capitalism, according to a new Cato 2019 Welfare, Work, Wealth Survey Report.
Fully 50% of Democrats say that President Donald Trump has made them “like capitalism less,” while 44% say he has had no impact on their perceptions.
Democrats were about equally favorable toward socialism and capitalism in 2010 (53% vs. 53%), 2012 (55% vs. 53%), and 2016 (58% vs. 56%). After the 2016 election, however, Democratic support for capitalism started to lose out to socialism. By 2018, Gallup found 57% of Democrats had a favorable view of socialism while fewer (47%) had a favorable view of capitalism.
Immediately after the election on November 10, 2016, I wrote:
There will be opposition to Trump but it will be coming from the left, not the Trump right.
The left is all about expanding the state. Thus, it will be very difficult to reach out to these people and present state shrinking anti-Trump ideas. They are a perfect target for the socialists...
The socialists are going to experience a boom in followers under Trump.
Thus, neither the left nor the right is going to be open to libertarian ideas at the present time.
And so it has come to pass. The masses, especially the Democrats, believe that Trump is a representation of what capitalism is about. He doesn't have a clue and neither do the masses but they are moving in a socialist direction. Not good.
(ht Evan M.)
Capitalism doesnt exist anymore. Capitalism ended in the US with the creation of the federal reserve central bank.
ReplyDeleteAnd not with the central banks preceding the Fed?
DeleteCapitalism exists wherever someone has some "extra" fruits of his labor. It exists in prisons, with inmates trading cigarettes or other items. It exists in hard-core communist countries like North Korea, where people trade on a black market. You can't snuff out people's innate urge and desire to improve their situation.
DeleteI think the reality is far less bleak than the report indicates. Most Americans can't even define capitalism or socialism, so it's a stretch to believe that there's a growing interest in totalitarianism. Democrats think capitalism is corporatism, and they think socialism means having a stronger social safety net. Under those conditions, it's easy to see stronger affinity for "socialism".
ReplyDeleteYour capitalism vs corporatism reference is the defining quality of this argument and so very few understand the difference.
DeleteYes. People are anti-corporatism (i.e. fascism) not anti-capitalism---but they don't even know it. And they are reaching for communism as a solution, unfortunately. The dilemma is how to get them to reach for true capitalism instead.
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