07-24-2010, 04:26 PM
75% Say Free Markets Better Than Government Management of Economy, Political Class Disagrees
Friday, July 23, 2010 Email to a Friend Advertisement
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 75% of Likely Voters prefer free markets over a government managed economy. Just 14% think a government managed economy is better while 11% are not sure. These figures have changed little since December.
Polling released earlier this week showed that Americans overwhelmingly believe that more competition and less regulation is better for the economy than more regulation and less competition.
Not surprisingly, Americaâs Political Class is far less enamored with the virtues of a free market. In fact, Political Class voters narrowly prefer a government managed economy over free markets by a 44% to 37% margin. However, among Mainstream voters, 90% prefer the free market.
Outside of the Political Class, free markets are preferred across all demographic and partisan lines. This gap may be one reason that 68% of voters believe the Political Class doesnât care what most Americans think. Fifty-nine percent (59%) are embarrassed by the behavior of the Political Class.
The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on July 20-21, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
A Rasmussen Reports survey last year caused quite a stir by showing that just 53% of Americans prefer capitalism over socialism. That stat even made its way into a Michael Moore film. By April 2010, the preference for capitalism was up to 60%. However, there is still a significant gap between support for capitalism and support for free markets. While some politicians and economists use the terms interchangeably, just 35% believe a free market economy is the same as a capitalist economy.
One reason for the gap in support for capitalism and free markets is clearly the behavior of some large American corporations. Seventy-three percent (73%) of Americans believe that Goldman Sachs is likely to have committed fraud as charged by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. Seven-out-of-10 Americans believe that government and big business work together against the interests of consumers and investors.
Eighty percent (80%) say Wall Street benefited more from the bailout of the financial industry than the average U.S. taxpayer.
Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Americans say most of the taxpayer money given out as bailouts went to the very people who created the countryâs current economic crisis.
A plurality (46%) of Americans say the government is more concerned with making sure that Wall Street is profitable than with ensuring that the financial system works well for all.
Highlighting their preference for free markets, only 29% of Americans believe the U.S. economy will be helped more by decisions made by government officials than by decisions made by business leaders to help their own businesses grow.
In his new book, In Search of Self-Governance, Scott Rasmussen describes it this way:
"The more or less official story line goes something like this: Big government and big business are perpetual and intractable enemies. Big business wants totally free and unfettered markets while big government wants to regulate everything that moves. ⦠As the story goes, the two sides duke it out and end up with compromise regulations. Businesses get enough freedom to compete while government gets enough regulation to protect consumers.
"This is bunk!
"The reality is a bit like a scam youâd see in a bad movie. Some guy is harassing a girl at a bar and another guy steps in to chase the jerk away. For good measure, he gets tough and just a little bit physical. After the jerk is gone, the 'hero' is free to accept whatever thanks he can from the damsel who thought she was in distress. She, of course, has no way of knowing that the two guys were friends and will switch roles the next time they try the scam.
"In the political world today, advocates of big business and big government play the same game. ⦠They pretend to fight so that one of them can rise to the defense of consumers or taxpayers. Big business leaders proclaim the virtues of the free market, and regulators talk about a mandate to protect consumers. Just as the guys reverse roles when it suits them, the elites take turns drifting back and forth between the business and government sides of the aisle.â
Rasmussen adds, âVoters have come to believe that capitalism means large, well-connected corporations keep the profits when times are good and get bailed out by taxpayers when times are bad. No wonder they prefer free markets over capitalism.â
In Search of Self-Governance is available at Rasmussen Reports and Amazon.com.
Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (itâs free)⦠let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news.
See survey questions and toplines. Crosstabs available for Platinum Members only.
Rasmussen Reports is an electronic media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion polling information. We poll on a variety of topics in the fields of politics, business and lifestyle, updating our siteâs content on a news cycle throughout the day, everyday.
Rasmussen Reports Platinum Members get an all-access pass to polling news, analysis and insight not available to the general public.
Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade. To learn more about our methodology, click here.
Friday, July 23, 2010 Email to a Friend Advertisement
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 75% of Likely Voters prefer free markets over a government managed economy. Just 14% think a government managed economy is better while 11% are not sure. These figures have changed little since December.
Polling released earlier this week showed that Americans overwhelmingly believe that more competition and less regulation is better for the economy than more regulation and less competition.
Not surprisingly, Americaâs Political Class is far less enamored with the virtues of a free market. In fact, Political Class voters narrowly prefer a government managed economy over free markets by a 44% to 37% margin. However, among Mainstream voters, 90% prefer the free market.
Outside of the Political Class, free markets are preferred across all demographic and partisan lines. This gap may be one reason that 68% of voters believe the Political Class doesnât care what most Americans think. Fifty-nine percent (59%) are embarrassed by the behavior of the Political Class.
The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on July 20-21, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
A Rasmussen Reports survey last year caused quite a stir by showing that just 53% of Americans prefer capitalism over socialism. That stat even made its way into a Michael Moore film. By April 2010, the preference for capitalism was up to 60%. However, there is still a significant gap between support for capitalism and support for free markets. While some politicians and economists use the terms interchangeably, just 35% believe a free market economy is the same as a capitalist economy.
One reason for the gap in support for capitalism and free markets is clearly the behavior of some large American corporations. Seventy-three percent (73%) of Americans believe that Goldman Sachs is likely to have committed fraud as charged by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. Seven-out-of-10 Americans believe that government and big business work together against the interests of consumers and investors.
Eighty percent (80%) say Wall Street benefited more from the bailout of the financial industry than the average U.S. taxpayer.
Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Americans say most of the taxpayer money given out as bailouts went to the very people who created the countryâs current economic crisis.
A plurality (46%) of Americans say the government is more concerned with making sure that Wall Street is profitable than with ensuring that the financial system works well for all.
Highlighting their preference for free markets, only 29% of Americans believe the U.S. economy will be helped more by decisions made by government officials than by decisions made by business leaders to help their own businesses grow.
In his new book, In Search of Self-Governance, Scott Rasmussen describes it this way:
"The more or less official story line goes something like this: Big government and big business are perpetual and intractable enemies. Big business wants totally free and unfettered markets while big government wants to regulate everything that moves. ⦠As the story goes, the two sides duke it out and end up with compromise regulations. Businesses get enough freedom to compete while government gets enough regulation to protect consumers.
"This is bunk!
"The reality is a bit like a scam youâd see in a bad movie. Some guy is harassing a girl at a bar and another guy steps in to chase the jerk away. For good measure, he gets tough and just a little bit physical. After the jerk is gone, the 'hero' is free to accept whatever thanks he can from the damsel who thought she was in distress. She, of course, has no way of knowing that the two guys were friends and will switch roles the next time they try the scam.
"In the political world today, advocates of big business and big government play the same game. ⦠They pretend to fight so that one of them can rise to the defense of consumers or taxpayers. Big business leaders proclaim the virtues of the free market, and regulators talk about a mandate to protect consumers. Just as the guys reverse roles when it suits them, the elites take turns drifting back and forth between the business and government sides of the aisle.â
Rasmussen adds, âVoters have come to believe that capitalism means large, well-connected corporations keep the profits when times are good and get bailed out by taxpayers when times are bad. No wonder they prefer free markets over capitalism.â
In Search of Self-Governance is available at Rasmussen Reports and Amazon.com.
Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (itâs free)⦠let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news.
See survey questions and toplines. Crosstabs available for Platinum Members only.
Rasmussen Reports is an electronic media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion polling information. We poll on a variety of topics in the fields of politics, business and lifestyle, updating our siteâs content on a news cycle throughout the day, everyday.
Rasmussen Reports Platinum Members get an all-access pass to polling news, analysis and insight not available to the general public.
Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade. To learn more about our methodology, click here.