Capitalism Hits 15-Year Low Among Americans
While a majority still favors capitalism, corporate America’s image continues to deteriorate rapidly
New polling from Gallup finds Americans continue to sour on big business, while capitalism faces similar declines in the eyes of the public.
The survey asked Americans whether they had a positive or negative view of five broad labels in the American economy. The one with the highest share of positive respondents is small business, with 95% viewing it positively.
Only the notion of free enterprise comes close to that, with an 81% positive rating, while 15% view it negatively.
Capitalism hit a fifteen-year low in this survey, with 54% viewing it favorably and 42% unfavorably. Perhaps this is not surprising given the screws have been put to the American people, from the cost of living to inflation, and everything in between.
Only socialism and big business rank lower than capitalism, at 39% and 37% positive, respectively. However, socialism has a lower negative result than big business, at 57% compared to 62%.
Overall, since Gallup started tracking these questions back in 2010, most of the labels have remained relatively stable.
Small business, for example, only hit a low point in 2018 at 92% positive, which was the same time free enterprise hit its low of 79%. Both remain above 80% positive, despite a small decline compared to 2021.
Capitalism saw a notable drop of six points since 2021, while big business has been on a continual decline since 2019, dropping fifteen points in that period. The only metric that saw an increase compared to 2021 was socialism, which ticked up by a point to reach its previous peak of 39%.
Let’s take a closer look at who exactly views capitalism, socialism, and big business positively and negatively.