Land of the free sours on capitalism: US poll



WASHINGTON - Bad news for those fearful of "creeping socialism" in the United States -- only 53 percent of Americans now believe capitalism is the better system, according to a new poll Thursday.
Fully 20 percent in the Rasmussen Reports survey said that socialism was their preferred economic system -- a startling number that suggests growing disaffection as the "land of the free" fights its worst recession in decades.



Land of the free sours on capitalism: US poll
Republican critics fret that President Barack Obama's big-spending recovery policies amount to an un-American "creeping socialism," but Rasmussen said its findings pointed to suspicion of business and government elites alike.
It noted that in another survey last month, two out of three Americans said that big government and big business often collude to undermine the interests of consumers and investors.
Meanwhile in another Rasmussen survey in late December, as Obama prepared to take power, 70 percent of respondents said they preferred 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," the pollsters said.
Rasmussen said its poll question did not define capitalism or socialism. Twenty-seven percent were not sure which is better.
The telephone survey of 1,000 people was conducted April 6-7, and has an error margin of three percentage points.
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Friday, April 10th 2009
AFP
           


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