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Socialism appears to be less popular than one might assume from friendly media coverage of its most prominent advocates. But this doesn’t mean capitalism is enjoying much support, either. The Economist/YouGov Poll tends to yield more negative appraisals of President Donald Trump than the typical public-opinion survey, so it seems safe to assume that it’s not oversampling conservatives. The latest edition of the poll finds Americans in a sour mood about the economy and pessimistic about the future. Among registered
voters, 71% rate the state of the economy as fair or poor, with just 26% calling it excellent or good. A 51% majority figure today’s children will be worse off financially than their parents. Given the revival in economic growth since the start of the year and low unemployment, the survey seems to offer further evidence that voters really hate inflation. But despite their dismay about current economic conditions, most survey participants still don’t seem to be demanding revolutionary change. When asked whether capitalism or socialism is the better economic system, 46% of registered voters say capitalism, 22% say socialism, and 32% say they’re not sure, according to the Economist/YouGov. After all the misery that socialism has caused over the last century, it’s amazing that it commands any popularity at all. On the other hand, given that socialist Zohran Mamdani is weeks away from taking office as mayor of the country’s largest city—the traditional world headquarters of capitalism—perhaps it’s nice to be reassured that the New York City electorate remains a weird outlier in the American political scene. This may also explain in part why Mr. Mamdani had a surprisingly friendly visit to the White House recently—one can only hope he’s begun to understand how bad his ideas are.
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