Sunday, April 12, 2009

Redefining ISMs


A Rasmussen poll released Thursday April 9th revealed “only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism.” Significantly Ramussen didn't define either "ism," and left the choice to whatever the respondents' current understanding of the two systems might be.

This in itself is fascinating, for while previous results show greater support for a free market economy, that term wasn't defined either, and current results reflect beliefs that markets aren't as free as the term suggests, and that Soviet or Chinese authoritarianism isn't the inevitable alternative to anarchic capitalism.

The New York Times Tobin Harshaw compiled reaction from around the web in "The Weekend Opinionator: A Different Sort of Red America."

Illustration: cover photo from How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All, the second comedy album by The Firesign Theatre. It was originally released in 1969 by Columbia Records.

2 comments:

  1. It's a crying shame our education system can indoctrinate our children so easily.

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  2. Love your blog mention of Firesign Theatre.

    I've known the guys for years and have a couple of websites about them:
    http://www.chromiumswitch.org and http://wiki.chromiumswitch.org

    ReplyDelete