Capitalism on Trial?

In a poll I'd expect the BBC to report on (it is, after all, government run), apparently most of the world is dissatisfied with free market capitalism.

In the global poll for the BBC World Service, only 11% of those questioned across 27 countries said that it was working well.

First of all, don't tell that to the thousands of entrepreneurs in third world countries (see www.kiva.org for more evidence). Second, that is indeed a low number. The interesting aspect about those 27 countries is that most of those countries likely do not practice mostly unregulated free markets. With the amount of government interference in the US with the previous two Presidential administrations, not even the US can be called a mostly unregulated free market anymore. After all, there were very effective arguments last fall that the depth of our recession was due in large part to too much government regulation with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. News from the poll, though, gets jucier.

And there is very strong support around the world for governments to distribute wealth more evenly. That is backed by majorities in 22 of the 27 countries.

What?! Apparently people polled in these 27 countries have the shortest-possible-term memory when it comes to authoritarian regimes. The only way for the government to assume control of wealth distribution is for it to be bigger and communist. Do I need to remind most of the world that Marxist and soviet communism is a reprehensible and moral evil? It's infiltrated with a low view of the nature of humans, utilitarian philosophy, and a need to worship the state and thus squash religious freedom (See: Communist USSR, Mao's China, Pol Pot's Cambodia, and many many more).

In communism, humans are means to the state's industrial end and thus are not crafted in the image of God. Because those regimes are utilitarian, the most disenfranchised are sacrificed in the society "for the greater good." Human beings are mercilessly killed in industrial plans and restricted resources because their individual lives do not matter as much. And because the state must assume so much control, any threat to it's absolute allegiance must go- and religious freedom most of all.

Capitalism isn't perfect, but it assures the greatest amount of liberty on this earth that is possible. Socialism hasn't saved Africa, but microfinance might. Communism didn't make Asia more wealthy, but the effects of capitalism are having a small effect on human rights in China.

It is my sincere belief that most people's dissatisfaction with capitalism is actually a dissatisfaction with something people think is capitalism, but actually falters for too much government interference.