Young People More Likely To Favor Socialism Than Capitalism: Pew

12/29/11

Young people -- the collegiate and post-college crowd, who have served as the most visible face of the Occupy Wall Street movement -- might be getting more comfortable with socialism. That's the surprising result from a Pew Research Center poll that aims to measure American sentiments toward different political labels...

The poll, published Wednesday...socialism has more fans than opponents among the 18-29 crowd. Forty-nine percent of people in that age bracket say they have a positive view of socialism; only 43 percent say they have a negative view.

And while those numbers aren't very far apart, it's noteworthy that they were reversed just 20 months ago, when Pew conducted a similar poll.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/29/young-people-socialism_n_1175218.html

Gallup February 4, 2010

PRINCETON, NJ -- More than one-third of Americans (36%) have a positive image of "socialism,"
http://www.gallup.com/poll/125645/socialism-viewed-positively-americans.aspx

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The fact that so many Americans favor socialism is significant, because no one with national name recognition has advocated it since the death of Michael Harrington in July 31, 1989.

 

The closest approximation to democratic socialism can be found in the Social Democracies of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. These have less public debt as a percentage of gross domestic product, and retain AAA ratings in Standard & Poor's and Moody's.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publica...ates&countryCode=us&regionCode=noa&rank=38#us

http://www.huliq.com/3257/us-leaves-whos-left-among-countries-both-moodys-s-p-aaa-ratings