Just 53% Say Capitalism Better Than Socialism
(h/t Monopticus)
So sayeth the Ramussen Phone Poll...
Though according to the initial breakout, if you're sitting there scratching your head and thinking "That just can't be right"... chance are, you're probably over 40.
Let's Review:
- Adults under 30 are essentially evenly divided: 37% prefer capitalism, 33% socialism, and 30% are undecided.
(that last 30% are the vacantly-staring, disconnected, mental-tabula-razas that criminal-defense and civil-prosecution attorneys refer to as "jurors" - MD)
- Thirty-somethings are a bit more supportive of the free-enterprise approach with 49% for capitalism and 26% for socialism.
- Adults over 40 strongly favor capitalism, and just 13% of those older Americans believe socialism is better.
- Investors by a 5-to-1 margin choose capitalism.
- As for those who do not invest, 40% say capitalism is better while 25% prefer socialism.
- There is a partisan gap as well. Republicans - by an 11-to-1 margin - favor capitalism.
- Democrats are much more closely divided: Just 39% say capitalism is better while 30% prefer socialism.
As for those not affiliated with either major political party, 48% say capitalism is best, and 21% opt for socialism.
Now I'm reminded of an old-saw that my brother and I frequesntly trade back-and-forth that goes:
"Truisms become truisms because, at some point, they were true."
You know - like:
"As people get older, start raising kids and become acquainted with cold reality - they become more conservative."
Or:
"A Liberal is just a Conservative who hasn't been mugged yet."
Okay - enough fun - looking back:
- Adults under 30 are essentially evenly divided: 37% prefer capitalism, 33% socialism, and 30% are undecided.
The phrase "adults under 30" seems more than ever like an oxymoron to me - particularly since the Obama campaign.
To be more accurate, that should probably read:
"kids at least old enough to have graduated college, who are still living with their parents, and are angry over not having been issued their Gulfstream IV with their degree".
Seriously, we're talking about the generation with the largest sense of collective-entitlement that our culture has ever seen.
MuscleDaddy-the-Elder asked his final (before retirement) Freshman English Class, on the first day of the semester, to scratch out a couple of paragraphs about:
"What you would want to have with you if stranded on a deserted island"
- more than one wrote "My Parents".
This is fairly indicative of the cultural phenomenon that allowed Barack Obama to get elected in the first place - nearly two generations brought up into lives of ease, short-attention-span and instant gratification... and they don't want it to end.
Someone should be their 'parent' - why not the government?
Bob Parks touched on this one in a recent post - go ye now and read it.
Sorry, what's that you say?
"But wait, MD - what about all of those patchouli-and-ponytail wearing oldsters?
What about the middle-aged Code Pinkos and over-the-hill Che-shirt-wearers?
What about the "Socialism" sides of the poll from the other age groups?
Don't they invalidate your chrono-centric rant, here?"
Not really, as it turns out.
But since they are a topic about which an entire book could be (and coincidentally, has been) written, I'll just point out that Diana West has already done all of the heavy-lifting on that topic - complete with a yeoman-effort of citation-and-reference gathering - and has produced the defining work in the explanation of that aspect of our societal failure with her book:
Death of the Grown-Up
...and follow by saying unto you all "go ye forth and read it".
(You can't have my copy - I'm hanging onto it against the long-chance of getting it autographed - go show your support of capitalism and buy your own!)
Seriously, folks - this isn't something that's going to fix itself, nor is the real work likely to bear fruit anytime soon.
The real change has to start here, now - with our kids.
- MuscleDaddy
(P.S. - I'm beating all of you to it - "Hey you kids! Get off my lawn!"... so there.)
MD, you are exactly right (as usual). This is why my next book project will a primer on how to raise up a new generation of American patriots -- children who are reared to have a sense of history, morality, work ethic and an understanding of the principles upon which our country was founded. The folks who can set the country straight are "We the parents..."
ReplyDeleteKeep up the pithy punditry. Even if the country is going to hell in a handbasket, you're hilarious.
Marybeth Hicks
Columnist, The Washington Times
www.marybethhicks.com
Wow, Mike Delta... that was some good sh... er, fe... er, stuff. Almost enough to make me wish I had some kids to pummel into shape.
ReplyDeleteAlmost.
Okay, it's nowhere NEAR enough to make me wish for anything that crazy, but still, a danged good read, and a great logic chain.
I'm printing this one up.
Thanx
GHS
Paules says,
ReplyDeleteIt's much worse than you think. Kids coming through the public school system today can do none of the following.
1. Add, subtract, multiply or divide without a calculator.
2. Read a Roman numeral.
3. Tell time unless the clock is digital.
I could go on, but here's the kicker. I asked one of my classes if they thought is was okay to grow up ignorant so long as they got what they wanted from life. Twenty-five percent answered in the affirmative.
I'm thinking now that a crisis on the order of the Great Depression is necessary. It might restore a work ethic and a sense of duty to the generation currently in school. I hope so. If not, the nation is doomed.