Even as Paul Ryan trumpets his free-market populism and the need for cuts to government spending as the only way to help the average American, The Economist reports that, at least according to a poll from the Canadian firm GlobeScan, capitalism as an ideology is actually on the wane. And not just in France (as you might have predicted) where only 6 percent “strongly support the free market,” but almost everywhere in the world except China, Brazil and Germany (the latter remains less than keen on bailing out its southern neighbors).
Most surprising, capitalism seems to be losing ground even in the land of entrepreneurship — the United States: “In 2002, 80 percent of Americans agreed that the world’s best bet was the free-market system. By 2010 that support had fallen to 59 percent, only a little above the 54 percent average for the 25 countries polled.”
Among Americans, the biggest anti-capitalists are those who make the least. Among people earning less than $20,000, “support for the free market has dropped from 76 percent to 44 percent in just one year.”