A new Pew global survey shows a contrast in social attitudes toward the merits of hard work and the free market economy, with three out of four BRIC countries showing big majorities in favour of capitalism, and the US still strongly inclined to support the free market. Germans, French, Japanese and most of all Lebanese were not convinced of the merits of hard work. In fact, Europeans in general were sceptical about the work ethic - suggesting that work does not pay (compared to welfare or asset wealth?).
The gap between those who favour the free market compared to those who don't is biggest in China and Brazil - yes, Communist-ruled China has a majority favouring the free market of 74% with 19% against - a positive difference of 53%. The positive difference in the US was 43%, 36% in India and 34% in Turkey. By contrast a negative bias against the free market was 26% in Mexico, 22% in Japan, and 5% in Spain.
The British also remained more than 60% in favour, although a third felt negatively. As a Briton, I think the questions of free market and hard work are misleading inasmuch as there is no free market except on eBay - there are markets in which the big few tend to dominate.
Meanwhile people's perception of their own situation often varies markedly from what they perceive as the general economic outlook, suggesting a tendency to view things negatively in countries such as the UK and France where the media, and perhaps the national psyche, is strongly focused on doom and gloom. By contrast in China, where the state controls the media message, the national economy is seen as doing better than the average person. Shockingly, only 2% of Greeks see their economy as doing well with Italy and Spain at 6%, and Japan at 7%.
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