Capitalism confronted with growing doubts
- Source: Global Times
- [18:06 November 11 2009]
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Capitalism has been increasingly questioned around the world. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)'s survey on November 9 reveals that only 11 percent of people in 27 countries think that capitalism works well, while 23 percent of the interviewees say capitalism has an Achilles heel and the world needs a new economic system.
It's been 20 years since the overwhelming joy of capitalism over socialism, marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall, but confusion and dissatisfaction in every corner of the world have since accumulated. France used to be proud of storming the Bastille, ushering in the French Revolution, but now the Gallic country has the most pessimistic forecast about its future.
Chinese scholars believe the real problem lies in the capitalist system refusing to reform, which requires a readjustment of interests; but it is almost impossible in the capitalist system because leaders must always please the voters and interest groups all the time. China has not yet provided the world with a systematic solution, but its achievements have become one of the elements to break the Iron Curtain.
Pessimism of capitalism beyond imagination
The BBC's poll, which marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall shows that more than half of the respondents are dissatisfied with the capitalist system with its global free market economy. On the contrary, socialist ideology won acceptance.
About 29,000 people were surveyed in 27 countries, and 51 percent of the interviewees believe the capitalist free market economy system needs to be regulated and reformed. Only in the US and Pakistan that 20 percent think capitalism works very well. Fifteen of the 27 countries say large enterprises should be owned by the state or mostly state-controlled, while the strongest supporters of this view come from countries that have adopted "shock therapy", referring to the sudden release of price and currency controls, withdrawal of state subsidies, and immediate trade liberalization within a country, as well as large-scale privatization of previously publicly-owned assets. Seventy-seven percent of the interviewees in Russia applaud state controls on the economy, as well as 75 percent of those in Ukraine. The survey also indicates that some elements of socialism such as "equal division of wealth "is very appealing. Up to 22 of the surveyed countries support governments in "equal division of wealth".
"It appears that the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 may not have been the crushing victory for free- market capitalism that it seemed at the time, particularly after the events of the last 12 months," said Doug Miller, chairman of research firm Globe- Scan, one of the poll organizers.
Report shows that the global financial crisis had an enormous impact on former socialist countries in Eastern Europe; a lot of people began to doubt the capitalist market economy.
The survey also reveals that the Chinese are open to ideology and social operating mechanisms and more accepting towards capitalism than the world average level: 11 percent of Chinese respondents fully approve capitalism; 58 percent think capitalism needs reform; and 18 percent are completely negative towards capitalism. Americans identify with capitalism most, while the most pessimistic are the French. Some 43 percent of the French expressed their complete loss of confidence in the capitalist economic system which they think needs to be thoroughly abandoned, with Mexico and Brazil in tow. In India, which is promoted as a role model of democracy in Asia by western countries, one-third think there is a fatal weakness in capitalism which needs to be replaced by a new system.
