The Chamber of Commerce has discovered that the average citizen isn’t too keen on the term capitalism:
“‘Capitalism’ was universally problematic,” says Chamber spokeswoman Tita Freeman. Adds Rich Thau, president of New York-based Presentation Testing, which ran the focus groups: “There were those who associated ‘capitalism’ with greed and with the powerful dominating the vulnerable.” But those negatives, he says, didn’t apply at all to “free enterprise.” . . . To test the various terms, Thau convened separate focus groups of Obama voters, McCain voters, and small business owners. The responses were quite similar across all three categories, he says. What surprised him most? “The number of people who associated ‘capitalism’ with increased government involvement in business. I’m still puzzling over that one.”
What’s to puzzle over? The connection has been made rather clear over the past year: In America, capitalism = Big Business = “too big to fail” = bailouts = increased government involvement in business.
(Via: The Corner)
August 12th, 2009 | 10:06 am
Hilaire Belloc showed us long ago in “The Servile State” how Capitalism tended toward Socialism.
August 12th, 2009 | 11:00 am
“…people who associated ‘capitalism’ with increased government involvement in business. I’m still puzzling over that one.”
Perhaps they’re just confused. Or perhaps they’ve read Tim Carney’s _The Big Ripoff_ about how business uses government to suppress its competition and give itself an advantage.
Wasn’t it Marx who popularized the word “capitalism”? Talk about letting your enemies set the terms of debate!
August 12th, 2009 | 12:10 pm
In most peoples’ minds “capitalism” and “free markets” are not synonymous. When you say “capitalism” most people think of the Wall Street investment banking industry and large corporations. When you say “free market system” most people think about the guys doing their start up down the street and all of the other business people they know personally.
All of the polls show that “capitalism” and “free market” produce radically different responses in line with the above. Many people despise the first, but are very much in favor of the second.
Most people are not stupid. I think they are beginning to understand the difference between corporate socialism (fascism) and true free market economics. They do not like the first (and rightly so) but are in favor of the second (and rightly so again).
August 13th, 2009 | 4:45 pm
[...] Joe Carter is on to Something . . . Filed under: Uncategorized — Matthew Schmitz @ 4:44 pm “In America, capitalism = Big Business = “too big to fail” = bailouts = increased governme… [...]
August 17th, 2009 | 11:12 am
[...] reports (HT: First Thoughts via The Corner) that the Chamber did some study of how particular terms are received by the public, [...]
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