Survey: Americans losing faith in capitalism

It doesn’t matter how many episodes of American Dad this country has watched, capitalism’s popularity is slowly falling in the US. A new poll released by Gallup yesterday found that just 54% of US adults view capitalism positively, the smallest share since the polling group started asking about the topic 15 years ago.

In 2010, Gallup first asked the question: “Just off the top of your head, would you say you have a positive or negative image of” capitalism and socialism. At the time, ~60% of respondents said they had a positive view of capitalism. And besides a small dip in 2018, that number remained relatively steady through 2021. Meanwhile, positive views of socialism have hovered at around 39% since 2010.

The American Dream is getting harder to sell. The latest survey, conducted in August, comes after a flood of recent data pointing to a tight job market, declining consumer sentiment, and a growing number of Americans who no longer believe hard work is the key to getting ahead.

But even now, Americans are still big fans of some parts of capitalism:

• In the most recent poll, 95% of respondents said they supported small business, while 81% supported free enterprise.
• Big business…did not fare as well. Only 37% of survey takers rated it favorably, a far cry from its peak positivity rating of 58% in 2012.

It’s political

Republicans still overwhelmingly support capitalism (74%) over socialism (14%).

But Democrats and Independents have waned in their support for capitalism in the last four years of the survey. This year marked the first time that a majority of Democrats rated socialism positively (66%), while just 42% viewed capitalism favorably.

Big picture: The survey reflects a shift among some Democratic voters—including New Yorkers who propelled Democratic-socialist Zohran Mamdani’s win in the city’s mayoral primaries. But they’re largely at odds with party leaders and more moderate Democrats, especially those on Wall Street.