Posted on 10/12/2014 9:56:12 AM PDT by george76
Edited on 10/12/2014 10:35:41 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Some fascinating results from a new Pew Research survey of global opinion. Let’s start with the US: 70% of Americans still think most people are better off under a free-market system, even if some people are rich and some are poor. That compares to 63% for the average advanced economy. What’s more, 73% and 62% think working hard and getting a good education, respectively, are very important to getting ahead in life vs. 40% and 39% for the average advanced economy. (For France, by the way, it’s 25% and 24%.) Finally, just 40% think success is determined by forces outside out control vs. 51% for the average advanced economy.
So Americans still have a great faith in the power of individual effort to make one’s own breaks and climb the ladder of success. At the same time, though, they are worried about what the future holds with just 30% confident that the next generation will be better off than the current one. That’s right around average for advanced economy but far gloomier than South Korea (52) and emerging Asian nations such as Vietnam (94%) and China (85%).
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Exactly. Americans like to think that they are for individualism and capitalism but what they are really for is free stuff paid for by someone else. Not all Americans but a large chunk are. 80 years of the Welfare State have given way too many Americans an attitude of “Gimme gimme gimme and make the rich pay for it.”
I have come up with a standard answer for these libtard edumacated teenagers who come out of high-school spouting off about how bad capitalism is.
I tell them “A wise man once said that Capitalism is the worst system there is- except for all t5he others...
“It may be brutal and ugly and stupid at times, but it is the only system that lets YOU decide what to do with YOUR OWN MONEY- instead of the Government making brutal and ugly and stupid decisions with your money.”
“My future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades” has morphed into “My future’s so dim, I gotta wear night-vision goggles.”
I was watching a sociologist author on CSPAN being interviewed by Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of facebook. She was discussing a book/study she had completed of more than 50 families of different income levels. Her opinion was typical for most leftists. Basically, she thinks your economic outcome is decided by the system\class and little if anything is decided by your personal character or hard work. Of course it is lot easier to run a race if you are given a big head-start, but I do think that personal traits and hard work determine if you end up gaining or losing ground from where you started. So, hard work and determination do matter despite what leftists say.
and we love our guns and religion too!!!!!!!!!
The harder we work, the luckier we get.
We all know stories of rich kids who blow their family trust funds for a variety of reasons.
Hard and smart work gives one a chance to be successful .
libtard edumacated teenagers often end up in the basement of their parents’ home into their 40s
You said it, there is much talk about how we are so conservative but watch what people vote for rather than what they say. People are often vastly different from their own self image. Have you ever met an irrational, illogical person who self identified as being irrational and illogical? I never have.
You said it, there is much talk about how we are so conservative but watch what people vote for rather than what they say. People are often vastly different from their own self image. Have you ever met an irrational, illogical person who self identified as being irrational and illogical? I never have. I have known people who called themselves stupid but they seldom act stupid, those who act in really stupid ways tend to think they are brilliant.
Even Freepers have posted comments in the past about how many “conservatives” voted for Obama!I still say that ZERO REAL conservatives voted for Obama, only people who self identify as something they are not, like “Rainman” saying, “I’m an excellent driver.”
An altogether accurate picture I would say.
We have had nothing remotely resembling a FREE market system for a long, long time. Those who think we now have a free market system are hopelessly confused. As Ayn Rand tried to explain, a governmentally controlled free market system is a contradiction in terms.
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