Capitalism Isn’t Failing America. The Con Artists Running the System Are.

Half the Country Has Given Up on the System. They’re Not Wrong to Be Skeptical.

New survey data shows fewer than half of Americans think capitalism is working well. A decade ago that number was 60%. And every talking head on cable news is going to use this data to push their preferred narrative, either that we need more government intervention or that we need to defend the free market at all costs.

I’m going to tell you what neither side wants to say out loud. What we have right now is not capitalism. It’s a corporate-government hybrid where the rules are written by the people who can afford to write them, and the rest of America is left holding the bill.

The Confidence Numbers Are Damning

Let’s go through what the data actually says:

• Only 35% of Americans believe this country gives people the ability to get good jobs and achieve the American dream. That number was 53% just over a decade ago.
• 68% of Americans say the country is in a state of decline. That’s approaching the 74% who felt that way during the Great Recession.
• Only 12% say democracy is working very well or extremely well.
• A mere 16% believe average citizens have considerable influence on politics.

Sixteen percent. That’s it. The other 84% have figured out what I’ve been saying for years. The system is not designed to serve you.

Who Actually Broke This?

It wasn’t capitalism that gutted the American dream. It was the slow, deliberate takeover of government by corporate interests. When big business and government become the same entity, you don’t get a free market. You get a protection racket for the already powerful.

Healthcare costs are the clearest example. They have gone through the roof over the past decade, quietly destroying household budgets while official statistics try to paper over the damage. People aren’t imagining the squeeze. They’re living it.

And Wall Street? Wall Street has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of this rigged arrangement. Too big to fail was not a capitalist outcome. It was a socialist bailout dressed up in a suit. The banks gambled, lost, and got rescued. You got the tab.

What the Establishment Media Gets Wrong

The coverage of this survey will focus on the wrong question. They’ll ask whether Americans support capitalism or socialism. That framing is designed to distract you.

The real question is this: Why have we allowed the merger of corporate power and government power to go unchallenged for so long?

Until that question gets a serious answer, these confidence numbers will keep declining. And the people who benefit from the current arrangement will keep pointing fingers everywhere except at themselves.

The State of Decline Is Real, and It Has a Cause

Sixty-eight percent of Americans feel the country is in decline. That’s not a feeling manufactured by the media. That’s a rational response to:

• Stagnant real wages while corporate profits hit record highs
• Healthcare costs consuming larger and larger shares of family budgets
• Political outcomes that consistently favor connected interests over ordinary voters
• A financial system where the rules change depending on how big your firm is

This is what happens when you let the foxes guard the henhouse for long enough. Eventually even the chickens figure out what’s going on.