Worldwide Poll: Vast Majority Say Capitalism Not Working

Worldwide poll: Vast majority say capitalism not working

By Raw Story
Monday, November 9th, 2009 -- 11:55 am


Dissatisfaction with capitalism is widespread around the globe 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall that heralded the demise of European communism, a poll released Monday showed.

Only 11 percent of people surveyed across 27 countries thought free market capitalism is working well, while nearly a quarter -- 23 percent -- said the system is "fatally flawed." A bare majority, 51 percent, believed its problems can be solved with more regulation and reform, the poll said.



In only the United States (25 percent) and Pakistan (21 percent), did more than one in five people agree that capitalism works well in its current form, the poll conducted for BBC World said.



The survey of 29,033 adults comes after the worst global financial crisis since the 1930s Great Depression and amid celebrations of the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which abruptly ended the Cold War.



http://rawstory.com/2009/11/survey-capitalism-not-working/

For the other 89% --- yer fucked!

Less than a third seem to think 'a different system is needed.' Not a majority.

No vast swing here.

On edit: What the Hell does France have to complain about? They're more Socialist than any Western country. If I lived there, I would be thrilled.

Think about all the folks at the blunt end of capitalism. That population is vast. Now think about how likely it is that they would even end up having any voice in such a poll.

Ever.

The odds must be astronomical on that.

Capitalism destroys everything in it's path. Everything.

....remarkable figures....

....capitalism as we know it, will have to change....let's hope we don't all die in the process....

Thomas More figured this out in 1516:

"No just and even distribution of goods can be made and ... no happiness can be found in human affairs unless private property is utterly abolished." --Utopia

Of course, More was abolished himself in 1535.

Does that mean that anyone can take your car and sleep in your house. Funny how people who claim "property is theft" like to hold onto theirs.

And pay a mortgage on a house?

Unless you allow other people to use YOUR CAR or HOME at will (not just when it is good for you) then you have no place trotting out the old warhorse of "property is theft."

Yes, some of the idealized states may offer a home and a job; they can also take those things away at any moment, especially if there is politics involved. In Stalin's USSR, many times neighbors would lie about how so and so was a traitor, just to get rid of that neighbor, and have a shot of claiming their stuff. A Prison gives you a place to sleep, food, and medical care, but that does not mean you want to sign up for it.

That does not mean capitalism is great either, after all, there is the same instability, where people will want to steal from or eliminate you. The difference being, in societies that try to balance Captialism and Socialism, the citizen does have some inherent rights that prevent them from being crushed by any mob, be they nasty neighbors or a mob of thugs.

In America, taking property from the rich is an appealing idea. Maybe the rich will stop thinking of this whole thing as a game. Ya think?

Say, their oil fields, so some psychopaths in Houston can get even richer? Does capitalism really look so good?

Dredging up that false attempt?

Defend capitalism on it's record. Certainly it is stellar and you can list it's enormous benefits.

The caricatures used to defend this criminal slaughterhouse only serve to prove it's injustice.

Funny. Ha-Ha.

First of all, if you think Capitalism is so unredeemable, get off the internet. Not only are you using a telephone,(invented by a capitalist inventor that made a company), but you are using a monitor (a descendant of a television), mass produced electricity (made by Thomas Edison) light Bulbs (gain, Edison), and a personal computer (made by a bunch of inventors in a garage that wanted to form a company.)

Also, please make sure that any and all medicines, inventions, tools, or other things you use were not invented by anyone who was hoping to make a living off of them. That pretty much means you cannot so much as shop at a supermarket.

Granted, I suppose you could shop at Farmer's Markets, bartering for any food you get, unless of course the farmer simply has no need of any service or barter you have, in which case, I suppose that would make the farmer the bad guy for not giving you what you need. Wait, if money is Capitalist, that means you cannot so much as spend a penny of it. I do hope your farmers always have need of whatever you can barter.

Of course capitalism has flaws, as does socialism (actually, I notice you do not say what system you actually propose as an alternative, so that you can list it's "enormous benefits.") However, the fact is, most people, every single day, live off something it produced. It would be hard for any person reading this to imagine a world without Thomas Edison's inventions, despite the fact he was and admitted Capitalist pig) What I attack is the extreme, where one says "property is theft", and yet, if I was sitting in your home, eating your food, you would call for the police.

When socialists, marxists, talk about property they are talking about property that is the means of production, factories, farmland, mines and so forth. It has nothing to do with your personal property, that is a scare tactic of the capitalist. They would have you believe that their property is just the same as yours, but if you are not using your property to extract labor from workers that is not the case.

A farmer is a capitalist, like the ones I buy from at a Farmer's market. Sorry to say, Communist farming failed dramatically in China and the USSR, though it did do well in Cuba.

We need a new socialism and a new political movement taking in all the best the left has had to offer throughout history.

Otherwise, how did we get to this point?

If people in my country really feel this way, why is Stephen Harper polling 35 - 40%...This would suggest that many people who see capitalism as flawed are voting for the hard neo-liberal right.

that it is the sole evil in the world. I'm glad Obama isn't listing to you or we would be in a second Great depression right now instead of on the road to recovery.

I have no problem with small business owners and family farms.

and according to her, 50% said that highly regulated capitalism would work, which seems to be the consensus on DU.

The majority said that free market, unregulated capitalism doesn't work.

Oh well. Being a Trot means never having to report the facts accurately.