[Peace-discuss] "Between the idea/And the reality...FallstheShadow"

[Laurie Solomon]

I am not sure if this is intentional or a typo; but I do not understand the 
reference to upper and lower cases in this post and am assuming you intended 
to write classes.

Assuming this, I would note that the conclusions inferred from these polls 
may be dependent on the terms presented in the questions and used by the 
subjects of the polls.  Many may look negatively on things labeled 
"capitalism" or "capitalist" while not having the same feelings for the set 
of values, beliefs, behaviors, and objectives that are traditionally and 
historically inherent in notions of capitalism as an economic and social 
theory and political-economic philosophy such as "free enterprise," 
"competition," "the laws of supply and demand," "survival of the fittest," 
"individualism" "utilitarianism," "egoism," "private property," etc.  I 
believe this is noted in the Estabrook's original posting of the Drajem 
article.

The anger exhibited, as also noted in the original article, is against large 
bureaucratic organizations - private and governmental - and the corporate 
nature of contemporary post industrial society more than an anger against 
the establishment or the upper class by the middle, working or lower 
classes.  There is no indication that - if the individuals in the middle, 
working, or lower classes were the beneficiaries of big government, 
corporate actions, or establishment capitalist policies and actions - they 
would oppose or rate "capitalism" poorly or express anger against big 
government and big private corporations rather than support those things. 
They still place their own individual self-interest first over the 
collective interest, still believe in private property and the rights of 
private ownership and control of public resources and properties, free 
enterprise and individualism, competition and survival of the fittest, and 
the laws of supply and demand, and continue to be parochial and nationalist 
in their willingness to expropriate the resources of and take advantage of 
others for their own benefit .



--------------------------------------------------
From: "E.Wayne Johnson" <ewj at pigs.ag>
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 9:43 AM
To: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu>; "peace discuss" 
<Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] "Between the idea/And the 
reality...FallstheShadow"

> the lettered view is that capitalism seems to favour the upper cases and 
> oppress (unpress) the lower case.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu>
> To: "peace discuss" <Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 9:54 PM
> Subject: [Peace-discuss] "Between the idea/And the reality...Falls 
> theShadow"
>
>
> `Capitalism' Not So Sacred to Americans as Mood Sours
> By Mark Drajem - Jul 13, 2010
>
> Capitalism, the bedrock of the U.S. economic system, isn’t a
> favorite term these days among American citizens, opinion surveys
> show.
>
> The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a poll today showing that 57
> percent of Americans say they support capitalism, compared with
> more than 70 percent who back free enterprise and free markets.
> Polls by the Gallup Organization and the Pew Research Center for
> the People & the Press earlier this year found similar lower
> levels of enthusiasm for the term.
>
> “There’s been an erosion of support for capitalism,” Steve
> Lombardo, president of the Lombardo Consulting Group, which
> conducted the poll for the Chamber of Commerce, said in an
> interview. “It hasn’t become a bad word, but it’s less positive
> than it has been.”
>
> The Chamber’s poll found 20 percent of those polled were neutral
> toward capitalism and 19 percent held negative views.
>
> For the Chamber, corporate America’s biggest lobbying force in
> Washington, that lack of support is a cause for worry, said Stan
> Anderson, managing director of its Campaign for Free Enterprise.
>
> “We need to do a better job of explaining the economic system in
> the United States and how it is working,” Anderson said in an
> interview. “We have been looking at anecdotal information that
> there was a misunderstanding of capitalism.”
>
> ‘Big Business, Big Government’
>
> Anderson said Americans’ support for the term “free enterprise,”
> which was viewed positively by 78 percent of the respondents, may
> show that they just oppose any “-isms.”
>
> Charles Derber, a sociologist at Boston College, says the results
> show the public’s unhappiness with the ties between “big business
> and big government,” exemplified by the multi- billion dollar
> bailout of banks in 2008.
>
> “When people say they are down on capitalism, they mean they are
> down on corporate capitalism,” Derber, author of books including,
> “People Before Profit,” said in an interview. “They see capitalism
> as it exists here as anything but a free market.”
>
> ‘Corporate Excesses’
>
> A Gallup poll in April found that 52 percent of those surveyed had
> a positive assessment of capitalism and 37 percent a negative
> view. Socialism had a 29 percent positive assessment.
>
> “Reaction to ‘capitalism’ is lukewarm among many demographic
> groups,” Gallup editor Frank Newport wrote May 4. “Fewer than half
> of young people, women, people with lower incomes and those with
> less education react positively” to the term, he wrote.
>
> “It is a reasonable hypothesis that in the midst of the current
> downturn and the visibility of the corporate excesses that
> negative assessments of capitalism have increased,” Newport said
> today in an interview. Gallup hadn’t polled about the term before,
> he said.
>
> In addition to the findings on capitalism, the Chamber’s poll
> found that 43 percent of those surveyed said the Obama
> administration’s policies are making the economy worse compared
> with 23 percent believing it is making it better.
>
> “There is a major trust deficit,” Lombardo said.
>
> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-13/-capitalism-not-so-sacred-to-americans-as-downturn-sours-mood-polls-show.html
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