The rise of socialism in U.S. politics has free market advocates looking for new ways to make the case for preserving public support for capitalism and economic freedom.
Sam Gregg, president of the American Institute for Economic Research, spoke with FOX Business and noted that in recent years there has been “a rise on the political left of people who describe themselves as democratic socialists,” adding that these “are not people of your old-style Democratic Party, these are not your JFK Democrats.”
“These are people who fundamentally disagree with the economic settings of the United States, and they want the U.S. to essentially look much more like what you might call a European social democracy,” he said.
“Those of us who believe in free markets, I think, really need to improve our game in terms of persuading people on the right and the left as to why these bad policies don’t work,” Gregg said.
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“People who are free marketers are very good at talking about policy… What we’re less good at is invoking the type of moral language that is necessary if you want to persuade people,” he said.
“People will be persuaded up to a point by economic arguments, but they’re also wanting to know that they’re doing the right thing, they’re doing the good thing.”
Gregg said that free market arguments need to not only highlight economic prosperity and wealth that capitalism can deliver, but also emphasize that “it’s a broader fight for liberty, it’s also a broader way of thinking about how people can participate in the American Dream and pursue all sorts of things.”
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“Once the government starts shutting down economic freedom, other freedoms quickly follow. Once you start to compromise property rights, it’s not just your economic freedom that becomes constricted,” Gregg said.
“It’s your ability to get up and move. It’s your ability to freely associate with people. It’s your ability to hold opinions without thinking that if you hold the wrong political opinion, the government’s going to take your property away from you,” he said.
Polling data suggests that while socialism is gaining ground in terms of favorability, it remains well behind capitalism. A Fox News poll conducted Oct. 9-12 found that 51% of voters had a favorable view of capitalism, down 2 points from a year ago and 6 points from early 2019, while socialism had a 32% favorability rating in the latest poll, up 5 points from last year and 7 points from 2019.
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Gregg, who is writing a new book about the civilization of commerce, aims to “point out that the argument for free markets includes good economic policy, it includes things like respecting people’s economic liberty.”
“When you live in a free market economy and the institutions and policies that buttress that, you have many more opportunities to pursue happiness… to transform your lives, not just in economic ways, but at the level of your family, in the culture, in everything we do,” Gregg said. “It adds up to a much richer, more dynamic, frankly more interesting society than all the alternatives.”
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