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Just 53% of Americans Say Capitalism Better Than Socialism
Rasmussen Reports ^ | 4/9/2009

Posted on 04/09/2009 8:18:42 AM PDT by rightwinggoth

Only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 20% disagree and say socialism is better. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are not sure which is better.

Adults under 30 are essentially evenly divided: 37% prefer capitalism, 33% socialism, and 30% are undecided. Thirty-somethings are a bit more supportive of the free-enterprise approach with 49% for capitalism and 26% for socialism. Adults over 40 strongly favor capitalism, and just 13% of those older Americans believe socialism is better.

Investors by a 5-to-1 margin choose capitalism. As for those who do not invest, 40% say capitalism is better while 25% prefer socialism.

There is a partisan gap as well. Republicans - by an 11-to-1 margin - favor capitalism. Democrats are much more closely divided: Just 39% say capitalism is better while 30% prefer socialism. As for those not affiliated with either major political party, 48% say capitalism is best, and 21% opt for socialism.

(Excerpt) Read more at rasmussenreports.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2009polls; capitalism; genx; mccainordie; polls; schifflist; socialism
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1 posted on 04/09/2009 8:18:42 AM PDT by rightwinggoth
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To: rightwinggoth

The surprise here isn’t that so many younger respondents think they would prefer Socialism, it’s that so few do.


2 posted on 04/09/2009 8:20:45 AM PDT by papasmurf (Trow da' bum out!)
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To: rightwinggoth

My God. This is what we are up against. The 27% who didn’t know, probably didn’t know the difference.

This is what happens when you let Socialists take over our education system.


3 posted on 04/09/2009 8:21:37 AM PDT by KansasGirl
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To: rightwinggoth

Most people, especially the young, have no idea of what capitalism is, or how it works. The brainwashing in our public schools and institutes of “higher” learning has been most effective in generating a cohort of truly ignorant people who have no clue as to HOW to be an American.


4 posted on 04/09/2009 8:21:44 AM PDT by alloysteel (When the chips are down - the buffalo is empty.)
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To: rightwinggoth
When you have HALF of Americans dependent on the government for their livelihood, HALF of Americans employed by the government and HALF of Americans who pay NO FEDERAL INCOME TAX; why should anyone be surprised.

Who says “Communism is dead!”

5 posted on 04/09/2009 8:21:48 AM PDT by kellynla (Freedom of speech makes it easier to spot the idiots! Semper Fi!)
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To: rightwinggoth

That’s the reason we have “o” in our White House!


6 posted on 04/09/2009 8:22:19 AM PDT by LadyPilgrim ((Lifted up was He to die; It is finished was His cry; Hallelujah what a Savior!!!!!! ))
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To: rightwinggoth

Adults under 30 are essentially evenly divided: 37% prefer capitalism,37% have brains the rest are brain dead.


7 posted on 04/09/2009 8:22:39 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: rightwinggoth
Proving once again that nearly 50% of "Americans" are ignorant or indoctrinated by Government Pubic Schools... (spelling intentional)

Clearly - these folks should be denied the vote in matters that effect the Republic.

8 posted on 04/09/2009 8:22:46 AM PDT by river rat (Semper Fi - You may turn the other cheek, but I prefer to look into my enemy's vacant dead eyes.)
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To: rightwinggoth

I think more people know about socialism than we know and don’t like it. As people actually see how it will effect them, as in our government, they will turn against it. Education is the key.


9 posted on 04/09/2009 8:22:48 AM PDT by RC2
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To: KansasGirl
My God. This is what we are up against. The 27% who didn’t know, probably didn’t know the difference.

Or who are just annoyed by pollsters. Idunno is usually the quickest answer to get through a poll when one sneaks through.

10 posted on 04/09/2009 8:23:36 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (No free man bows to a foreign king.)
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To: rightwinggoth
Folks, we are failing. We can't blame anyone but ourselves for not educating everyone around us as much as possible about the virtues of capitalism and how the individual can achieve his dreams through the capitalistic system. I am just as guilty. We really need to refocus on this.

Capitalism demands the best of every man – his rationality – and rewards him accordingly. It leaves every man free to choose the work he likes, to specialize in it, to trade his product for the products of others, and to go as far on the road of achievement as his ability and ambition will carry him. - Ayn Rand

11 posted on 04/09/2009 8:23:45 AM PDT by mnehring
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To: rightwinggoth

The commies said they would take over through our schools, unions and government. They have done a good job with their commie teachers and professors brainwashing our young.


12 posted on 04/09/2009 8:23:49 AM PDT by Uncle George
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To: Vaduz

Yep, and since Zero and his ilk consider 52% an overwhelming majority, a landslide, a mandate, then he should most assuredly listen to the 53% who say they prefer capitalism....


13 posted on 04/09/2009 8:24:30 AM PDT by Right Cal Gal (Abraham Lincoln would have let Berkeley leave the Union without a fight)
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To: rightwinggoth

As it was with the wage and price freezes, inflation, and micro-mismanagement of Nixon/Ford/Carter, our the pain Obama brings us will be our teacher.


14 posted on 04/09/2009 8:26:02 AM PDT by flowerplough (52% of us with incomes over $200k voted for Obama and 60% of those earning under $30K did, too.)
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To: rightwinggoth

Not terribly surprising. Nobody really likes capitalism during a recession, not that socialism is any better but we are living in that part of the cycle where even Adam Smith would admit capitalism can suck sometimes. Ask the question 10 years ago before the .com meltdown when capitalism was all wine and roses and you’ll get closer to 80%.


15 posted on 04/09/2009 8:26:21 AM PDT by razorboy
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To: rightwinggoth

I would be curious to see the results if the term “Free Enterprise” was used instead of “Capitalism”.


16 posted on 04/09/2009 8:26:23 AM PDT by Carl LaFong (Experts say experts should be ignored.)
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To: rightwinggoth
It is interesting to compare the new results to an earlier survey in which 70% of Americans prefer a free-market economy. The fact that a “free-market economy” attracts substantially more support than “capitalism” may suggest some skepticism about whether capitalism in the United States today relies on free markets.

Or, it may suggest a successful propaganda campaign by the socialists in the MSM and the National Education Association. Don't worry -- free markets are next on the hit list.

17 posted on 04/09/2009 8:26:57 AM PDT by Constitutionalist Conservative (Two blogs for the price of none!)
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To: rightwinggoth

Ignorance, ignorance and ignorance. For nearly a century, the left has done everything in its power to create ignorant citizens and voters. A group of 60 years olds going back to high school today would be stunned at the subject matter taught to kids. Useless, trivial, misrepresented, distorted, history rewritten until unrecognizable. Four years of moral equivalence and America bashing.


18 posted on 04/09/2009 8:27:41 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax (AGENDA OF THE LEFT EXPOSED)
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To: alloysteel

1963 Congressional record on Communist Goals in America

“#17) Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for Socialism, and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers associations. Put the party line in text books.”

See this site for the rest.....

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/651116/posts


19 posted on 04/09/2009 8:28:27 AM PDT by dianed
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To: rightwinggoth
The over-40s (like me) are old enough to have witnessed first-hand the consequential differences between capitalism and socialism.
20 posted on 04/09/2009 8:28:41 AM PDT by Constitutionalist Conservative (Two blogs for the price of none!)
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