Canadian blogger William Watson, writing at the Financial Post, notes that throughout the world, majorities support free markets:
Despite anti-market views in the media, polls show an eye-opening level of support for free markets around the world
How do you feel about the following statement? “Most people are better off in a free market economy, even though some people are rich and some are poor.”….
How do Americans feel about the free market? This year 68% either agreed or strongly agreed with the above statement that a free market economy is best even with the income inequalities it generates. That’s down a bit from previous years (72% in 2002, 70% in 2007 and 76% in 2009). But it’s just what you’d expect from Americans — namely, solid and not really wavering belief in the free market….
What’s really eye-opening about the numbers, however, is who else loves the market. This year, 84% of Chinese citizens polled agreed the free market is best. That was the highest approval rating among all countries polled. China. An officially communist country. Home not 50 years ago of the infamous Cultural Revolution, in which all symptoms of individual economic success were eradicated, down to people’s eyeglasses. India, too, long a bastion of Third-Way economic planning and regulation, gave the free market a 79% approval rating.
The market has fans everywhere in the emerging economic superpowers: In Brazil, 75% of those polled expressed their approval; in Nigeria, 82%. My favourite factoid from this data is that the highest approval rating ever, 96% in 2002, was recorded by Vietnam, i.e., what we used to think of as Ho Chi Minh’s Vietnam but maybe should be rethought of as Adam Smith’s Vietnam (even if 96% is the kind of majority Ho Chi Minh elections used to produce). In the Palestinian territories, the free market polls a vigorous 82%….
See, William Watson: Free market winning fans | FP Comment | Financial Post.